After nearly six months of being in limbo, an arbitrator has upheld the Toronto Maple Leafs buyout of defenseman Jared Cowen on Wednesday.
The 25-year-old defenseman was acquired from the Ottawa Senators along with forwards Milan Michalek, Colin Greening, Tobias Lindberg and a second round pick in the Dion Phaneuf deal last February and was immediately placed on injured reserve for hip tightness, but later was cleared medically before being placed on waivers.
Cowen was informed by Leafs GM Lou Lamoriello that he would not play for them and that the club would buy him out of the final year of his four-year, $12. 4 Million contract after the season.
The blueliner chose to have off-season surgery and when Toronto placed on unconditional waivers in mid-June, he appealed to the NHL because of his injury status, but the chance to collect $4.5 Million salary instead of the buyout amount of $750,000 was clearly the motivation for the appeal.
The Leafs clear Cowen’s $3.1 Million cap hit for 2016-17 and gains a credit of $650,000 this season, but will have a $750,000 cap hit for 2017-18, but more importantly have another open spot under the league’s 50 professional contract limit.
According to
the website Cap Friendly, Toronto with the $650,000 credit has just under $1 Million in available cap space, but that figure could be much larger if the Leafs place injured forwards Nathan Horton, Joffrey Lupul or defenseman Stephane Robidas on long-term injured reserve (LTIR).
The vacated spot may come in handy if the Leafs decide to sign free agent goaltender Karri Ramo, who agreed to a professional tryout contract on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Ramo is expected to play for the AHL Toronto Marlies during their four-game road trip.
Goalie Jhonas Enroth, demoted to the Leafs AHL affiliate on Tuesday, will be fighting for playing time with Garret Sparks, Jeff Glass, Ramo and Antoine Bibeau (if/when Ramo is signed or he is demoted), but the 28-year-old Swede has a one-way deal for $750,000 and there is no guarantee that he will find a contract that good midway through the season with a European club team.
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The Maple Leafs take on the Minnesota Wild for the second and final time at Air Canada Center on Wednesday.
The two clubs met in October, as Eric Staal scored twice in a 3-2 win in St. Paul.
The Wild, coached by former Jack Adams Trophy winner Bruce Boudreau, have surrendered a league-low 49 goals against this season. Devan Dubnyk leads the NHL with a .946 save percentage and is expected to get the start for the Wild, while Frederik Andersen will be between the pipes for the Leafs.
With Buffalo and Detroit winning on Tuesday, Toronto find themselves in a tie for last place in the Eastern Conference with the NY Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes (Leafs have two games in hand) and in the bottom five of the NHL standings.
Wednesday’s contest against Minnesota begins a stretch prior to Christmas where Toronto plays six of their next seven games at home, where they have an 8-3-0 record.
“What I’ve found over the years, whether it was winning 50 games in Detroit or whether we’re here in Toronto, if you stay focused on what you’re doing, things work out in the end.” Leafs coach Mike Babcock said on Wednesday morning. “When the games are all even, I’ll look at (the standings) more, but we’ve just gotta win tonight.”
Martin Marincin did not participate in the morning skate at ACC due the flu and Connor Carrick replaced the lanky blueliner on the pairing with Jake Gardiner. Babcock indicated that Marincin would be available for tonight and would be a game time decision.
William Nylander remains as the fourth line center between Matt Martin and Ben Smith, with Connor Brown and Nikita Soshnikov playing on the right side with Zach Hyman-Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri-Leo Komarov.
“Someone else is playing in (Nylander’s) spot and they are playing well.” Babcock said. “Willie has played 20 and 17 minutes the last couple games. The reason I know that is that I checked. Normally I wouldn’t check, but because he had been fourth line center, I checked. He’s playing lots of different spots. We have 10 guys for nine spots and right now this works good for us.”
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The Marlies will get defenseman Travis Dermott back in the lineup on Wednesday in Utica. The 19-year-old blueliner had five assists in eight games before suffering an ankle injury on October 29 in Albany.
“I felt like something was wrong, but didn’t know if it was my knee or ankle or what.” Dermott said to
TSN’s Kristen Shilton. “I got an MRI and the MRI came back worse than I honestly thought it would be.”
Toronto was 6-1-1-0 with Dermott in the lineup and has gone 5-7-0-1 since the end of October.
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