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The Toronto Maple Leafs made the necessary moves to get down to 23 players on Monday, placing four players on waivers and assigned four others, but the club may not be done making roster moves this week because of their complicated managing of long –term injured reserve.
The Leafs placed forwards Kenny Agostino, Nic Petan and Garrett Wilson, and defenseman Kevin Gravel on waivers, sent forward Egor Korshkov to the Toronto Marlies, and placed injured forwards Kalle Kossila and Mason Marchment on the non-roster injured list.
The club also released veteran winger Matt Read from his professional tryout contract, but signed the 33-year-old to an AHL deal.
Petan had a good training camp and showed his offensive abilities, but head coach Mike Babcock was apparently looking for someone who plays a more ‘heavy… brand of hockey with his top three lines being heavy on skill. Agostino had some moments early in camp, but trailed off in the last week.
Both players were signed to two-year, one-way deals and the calculation being made by GM Kyle Dubas is that the term on their contracts might be enough of a deterrent to keep other clubs from claiming them.
Wilson suffered a hamstring injury before the start of training camp and is still recovering, while Gravel lost out to rookie Rasmus Sandin, Martin Marincin and Justin Holl in the battle for a bottom pairing spot.
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— Kevin McGran (@kevin_mcgran) September 30, 2019
Liljegren and Shore did not have particularly good camps and it has been assumed based on the Leafs tight cap situation that they will not carry a full 23-man roster for the season.
Per Cap Friendly’s calculations, the Leafs current roster has them $13,652,493 above the $81.5 Million cap limit. The total salaries of injured forwards Nathan Horton, David Clarkson, Zach Hyman and defenseman Travis Dermott would open up $13,663,333 when placed on LTIR on Tuesday.
Assistant GM Brandon Pridham has to get the club as close to the amount of the player salaries above the cap to maximize the amount of room they can clear when they put Horton, Ckarkson, Dermott and Hyman on LTIR.
After that happens, the club can send players down and open up more space to manage the cap. Liljegren is waiver exempt and there is no risk of the Leafs losing the 20-year-old, and he is not missing any action since the Marlies season has not started.
Holl, Shore, and Timashov all require waivers, and waiting until after the start of the season (when all the other NHL clubs have made their cuts), increases the chances of them getting through and down to the Marlies.
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