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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been a big presence on the NHL waiver wire this season, and on Friday they used it to fill an organizational need by re-claiming forward Seth Griffith from the Florida Panthers.
The 24-year-old center/right winger played four seasons for Mark Hunter with the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League, scored 77 points (24 goals, 53 assists) in 57 games with the Providence Bruins last season after a 30-game NHL stint with Boston in 2014-15.
The Leafs claimed Griffith in early October and he played just three games with the Blue and White before being placed on waivers again in November and moving on to the Florida Panthers.
In 21 games with the Panthers, the Wallaceburg, ON native had five assists, playing at times on Florida’s top line with Aleksander Barkov and Jaromir Jagr.
Since no other NHL club had filed a claim and Griffith had previously been with the Leafs, he was able to be assigned directly to the AHL Toronto Marlies.
A similar situation occurred with Reid Boucher earlier this season. Nashville claimed the forward from New Jersey and when the Predators tried to send the forward down to the American Hockey League, the Devils reclaimed him.
Another NHL club also filed a claim on Boucher, which forced the Devils to place him on waivers again the following day and lose him for the second time to the Vancouver Canucks.
Griffith was likely re-acquired to replace the scoring of injured winger Kasperi Kapanen, who is expected to be out long-term with a left leg injury.
Leafs defenseman Roman Polak watches the monitor as TSN’s Ray Ferraro describes his hit on Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello.
The Leafs announced that Morgan Rielly will miss Saturday’s divisional matchup against the Ottawa Senators at Air Canada Center, but Martin Marincin is healthy enough to return to the lineup after over a month on injured reserve.
The 24-year-old defenseman suffered a lower body injury on December 10 in Boston and has been skating in practice since last week.
Marincin will likely replace Frank Corrado in the lineup on Saturday, who did not impress Mike Babcock in his second game with the Leafs.
The head coach would not elaborate on the defenseman’s performance after the game, but Corrado saw the lowest ice time of any Leafs defenseman (11:36), took two minor penalties and was on the ice for the Rangers first goal.
Based on Marincin’s return and Rielly likely being back sometime next week, it is possible that we have seen the last of Corrado unless more defensive injuries occur.
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