The Toronto Maple Leafs look to end their four game losing streak when they take on the Florida Panthers at Air Canada Center on Thursday.
Head coach Mike Babcock will go back to goaltender Frederik Andersen after the Leafs goaltender allowed a career-high seven goals in a loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday, but will tinker slightly with his lineup.
Seth Griffith skated on the wing with Matt Martin and Ben Smith at ACC on Thursday morning and will see his first action since being claimed off of waivers from the Boston Bruins earlier this month. Martin Marincin will return to the lineup after a three-game absence due to a lower-body injury.
Matt Hunwick was slated to play tonight, but Babcock indicated after the morning skate that the veteran defenseman has a lower-body injury. Roman Polak is expected to take Hunwick’s place on the bottom pairing with Marincin.
The Panthers are 3-2-1 on the season (winless in two road games) but have only allowed 15 goals against (5th best in the NHL).
Jonathan Marchessault (signed as an unrestricted free agent from Tampa Bay) leads the Panthers with eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) and starting goalie Roberto Luongo has a 1.99 GAA, .922 save percentage and all three of Florida’s victories.
Marlies defenseman Andrew Nielsen scores the winning goal in a 4-3 overtime victory over Providence on Wednesday.
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The Anaheim Ducks were finally able to get RFA defenseman Hampus Lindholm locked up, as the 22-year-old defenseman signed a six-year, $31.5 Million contract ($5.25 Million AAV) on Thursday.
The deal removes one possible option for teams looking for a long term solution to improve their blueline (although there was not a great deal of speculation that the Ducks were shopping the 2012 sixth overall pick) but could open up the potential move of Cam Fowler, as the Ducks are tight against the salary cap.
The Maple Leafs are one of a number of teams looking for defensive help, but the options are not plentiful in restricted and unrestricted free agency next summer.
The RFA class includes Erik Gudbranson, Dmitri Orlov(who paired with Nikita Zaitsev are the World Cup for Russia last month) and Calvin deHaan and would require the Leafs to trade draft picks or young assets to acquire them.
Veterans Brent Burns, Karl Alzner and Kevin Shattenkirk are at the top of the UFA class, but as we have seen with pending free agents over the last few seasons, the odds are remote that they will get to the open market.
San Jose has money coming off the cap with the expiring contracts of Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, Washington the same with Justin Williams and TJ Oshie, which would allow those clubs to get Burns and Alzner extended without any cap crunch.
Shattenkirk is the most likely to be a free agent come July 1 (as St. Louis will has his replacement in Colton Parayko becoming an RFA and in need of an extension) but the cost to sign the 27-year-old will be in the neighborhood of what Keith Yandle got from Florida this past summer ($6.35 Million AAV x 7 years).
The Toronto Sun’s Lance Hornby reported that Ducks scouts were following the Leafs during their three-game Central Division road trip last week, which may be an indicator that the frequent trade partners may be pondering another move.
Unless the Leafs are able tap the KHL again as they did with Zaitsev or get into the top two of next year’s draft to select Swedish defense prospect Timothy Liljegren, the trade market may be the only means of making immediate improvement.
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