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The Toronto Maple Leafs for the second straight day did not have Auston Matthews on the ice for practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Tuesday, but a PCR to confirm that the Rocket Richard Trophy winner has COVID after testing positive on a rapid test came back negative.
Matthews is asymptomatic according to Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe, and his availability for Wednesday’s game against the Edmonton Oilers will be determined with the results of another test.
With Matthews absent, the line assignments were the same as Monday except for winger Ondrej Kase being absent. John Tavares centered the top line with Michael Bunting and Mitch Marner, Alex Kerfoot moved to the middle between Ilya Mikheyev and William Nylander, defenseman Alex Biega took Kase’s place with Pierre Engvall and David Kampf, and Nick Ritchie skated on the fourth line with Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds.
Bunting took Matthews place on the first power play, with Ritchie taking his spot on the second unit.
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The Leafs will be in a nip-and-tuck battle with Florida and Tampa Bay for top spot in the Atlantic Division this season and undoubtedly their chances of advancing in the postseason for the first time in 17 years may rely on finishing in first place, avoiding a first-round match with the two-time Cup Champs or the much-improved Panthers, and having the Florida foes beat on each other in the first round.
Another key may be the ability of GM Kyle Dubas to massage the salary cap to create enough space to make a deadline upgrade. According to Cap Friendly, the Leafs currently are $62,160 under the cap and that fact may prevent Dubas from making an impact move. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek indicated on the “32 Thoughts… podcast that a lack of cap space and draft capital (Toronto has a first, second and seventh round pick in 2022) may prevent them from adding any player of significance.
One player that could be a fit for the Leafs is Buffalo defenseman Colin Miller. The 29-year-old blueliner has 11 points (2 goals, 9 assists) in 28 games, is an expiring contract, a right-hand shot, a player that played for Dubas and Keefe with the Soo Greyhounds, and someone that has been of interest to Toronto going back to 2017 prior to being selected by Vegas in the expansion draft.
Miller’s $3.875 million AAV would require the Sabres and perhaps a third team to retain salary to make him fit under the cap.
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Lot’s of â¤ï¸ for the 💙ðŸ¤
— Norman James (@IamNormanJames) April 26, 2021
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