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The Toronto Maple Leafs will be looking for a sweep of their four-game swing through Alberta against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Saturday night. Toronto won 4-3 on Thursday courtesy of Auston Matthews third period power play goal and could open up a 10-point gap on the Oilers less than a month into the regular season.
There were indications of lineup changes at practice on Friday, as Pierre Engvall replaced Travis Boyd at fourth line center and Mikko Lehtonen replaced Travis Dermott on the bottom pairing with veteran Zach Bogosian.
Through almost three weeks, Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe has been forced to shake up his combos on the top three lines due to injuries to Joe Thornton and rookie Nick Robertson, but the fourth line has pretty much been a rotation of Engvall, Boyd, Alexander Barabanov, Jason Spezza, and Joey Anderson.
The top two defensive pairings of Morgan Rielly – TJ Brodie and Jake Muzzin – Justin Holl have remained intact through nine games, with Lehtonen and Dermott subbing in and out with Bogosian.
While there is still not a great level of trust in Lehtonen a few games into his NHL career, the Leafs appear willing to give the 27-year-old Finn an opportunity to see what he can do, but that comes at the cost of Dermott.
Courtesy of @CapFriendly's Seattle Expansion Draft Simulator, this is who the #Leafs would likely protect next June. pic.twitter.com/X0lgHTbH0W
— Michael Augello (@MikeInBuffalo) October 23, 2020
The Seattle expansion draft is probably the last thing on the mind of GM Kyle Dubas at this point, but the current construct of the blueline looks to point to losing a defenseman to the Kraken unless the Leafs expose a forward like Alex Kerfoot.
Holl, after serving as a lineup pià±ata for Mike Babcock and playing just 11 games two years ago, missed only two games last season and has settled into a shutdown role with Muzzin this year. Dermott signed a one-year, $874,125 deal coming off his entry-level contract and his future in Toronto is in question. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs explored moving the 24-year-old in the offseason and the Florida Panthers had interest.
Three years ago, the Leafs had the luxury of protecting depth defenseman Connor Carrick and did not have to protect an exempt Nikita Zaitsev, but that will not be the case this time around. Lehtonen, Sandin and Timothy Liljegren are exempt, but Dubas has to protect Muzzin, Brodie (both have no-movement clauses) and Rielly, leaving Holl and Dermott exposed.
Although it was thought that Seattle GM Ron Francis would not benefit from the same generosity that the league provided George McPhee in 2017, the Kraken are likely going to get a slew of extra draft picks and prospects to take on players with salary that other teams want to rid themselves of or to ignore an exposed player.
It would not be surprising to see Dubas attempt that type of maneuver with Francis (who he has a relationship with going back to his days with the Soo Greyhounds) to retain Holl, who has two years remaining at $2 million, at the cost of giving up Dermott or possibly by trading a prospect such as Liljegren.
Only Dermott playing beyond expectations would change that equation this summer.
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And there’s Convo on Pod, too.@TheLeafsConvo2 @MikeInBuffalo #theleafsconvo #LeafsForever https://t.co/j98M0FXxJi
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) January 28, 2021
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