maple leafs

Toronto's struggles to create cap space; Leafs vs. Penguins

Feb 17, 2022 • 4:13 pm

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The Toronto Maple Leafs begin a brief homestand against the Pittsburgh Penguins at a half-filled Scotiabank Arena on Thursday, as the province of Ontario loosened their attendance restrictions this week. The Leafs ended a mini two-game losing skid with a 6-2 win over Seattle on Monday, and will look to keep pace with Florida and Tampa Bay, who registered victories over Carolina and New Jersey this week.

The Leafs continue to make maneuvers to manage what little cap space they have. After claiming center Adam Brooks off of waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, the club had to demote defenseman Timothy Liljegren to the American Hockey League to stay under the $81.5 million salary cap.

"There was a move needed to add Adam, that's a Kyle decision and I was told these are the guys that we have available for the game tonight. This is a good chance for us to get Travis Dermott in, somebody I wanted to get back in anyway." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the optional morning skate. "I think the idea behind it is just we didn't want to lose him initially and it was a chance to bring him back. It was intriguing, especially when you look at what we've gone through this season in particular with our center depth, the loss of Brooks initially, (Kirill) Semyonov and (Michael) Amadio."

Dubas is hoping to have success where he failed earlier this season, as the club placed Brooks on waivers for the second time in 48 hours. The 25-year-old played a five-game AHL conditioning stint last month coming off an undisclosed injury and the Golden Knights were looking to clear a spot on their roster to activate center Jack Eichel.

With just $262,000 in projected cap space, the Leafs are hoping to get Brooks down to play regularly for the AHL Marlies and are gambling that the teams ahead of them will not put a claim in on him for the second time this week and the six teams after them will pass on him.

Reporter David Alter believes that Vegas will likely not attempt to reclaim Brooks, since they have only two slots under the 50 NHL contract limit and may want to add players before March 21, but in their 2-0 loss to Colorado on Wednesday, they did loss forward Nolan Patrick to a possible concussion.

Forward Nick Ritchie played his first AHL game in seven seasons on Wednesday and scored a goal in a 6-2 Marlies win over Utica. Dubas is likely looking to move the 26-year-old winger off to a club without having to retain salary or give up an asset, which might not an easy proposition.

Keefe indicated that with Dermott replacing the demoted Liljegren, the defensive pairings may see some changes, especially with the second pairing of Jake Muzzin and Justin Holl continuing to struggle. Jack Campbell will make his second straight start coming off a win over the Kraken, while Tristan Jarry will be between the pipes for Pittsburgh. *******