With defenseman Matt Hunwick skating and nearly ready to come off injured reserve and Josh Leivo playing the final of a three-game AHL conditioning stint with the Marlies in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, GM Lou Lamoriello needed to make moves to keep the Toronto Maple Leafs roster at 23 players.
The first of those moves occurred on Friday, as the club waived forward Seth Griffith.
The 23-year-old forward was scoreless in three games with Toronto after being claimed off of waivers from the Boston Bruins and had not played since the 5-1 loss in Brooklyn on October 30 and was thought to have been brought in because of his association with Assistant GM Mark Hunter with the London Knights.
With the activation of Hunwick and Leivo returning from Marlies, the Leafs will be at 24 players, which will make it necessary for Lamoriello to make another move.
It is unlikely that Ben Smith (also claimed off of waivers from Colorado) will be going anywhere, since his versatility as a fourth line center/faceoff specialist is valuable to head coach Mike Babcock and that the Leafs would risk trying to sneak Leivo through waivers for fear of the youngster being claimed.
Connor Brown and Nikita Soshnikov are both waiver exempt, but Babcock appears intent on giving both rookies an opportunity, sending Milan Michalek to the minors.
One possibility is getting Frank Corrado to accept a two-week conditioning stint in the AHL. The dormant defenseman has understandably begun to express his frustration at not being able to crack the Leafs lineup in the first 13 games and would be able to get into his first game action since the pre-season, but denying the conditioning stint might force the organization’s hand to place him on waivers so that another team can claim him.
The Leafs are hoping to bounce back from a 7-0 thrashing at the hands of the LA Kings on Tuesday, as they take on the Philadelphia Flyers in the annual Hall of Fame game at Air Canada Center on Friday.
Former Leafs player/coach/GM Pat Quinn, former Flyer and Leaf great Eric Lindros, Russian great Sergei Makarov and goaltender Rogatien Vachon will be honored in a pre-game ceremony.
Babcock kept his line combinations the same at the morning skate on Friday, but juggled his defensive pairings, moving veteran Roman Polak to play on the top pairing with Morgan Rielly. Martin Marincin pairs with rookie Nikita Zaitsev and veteran Jake Gardiner partners with Connor Carrick.
Frederik Andersen gets the start in goal for Toronto and Steve Mason for Philadelphia.
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