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The Toronto Maple Leafs have demoted 23 players in the first of a series of cuts to get down to a 23-man roster prior to the regular season opener against Ottawa on October 12.
The club reduced their roster from 76 players to 53, sending defensemen Stephen Desrocher (Kingston), Nicolas Mattinen (London) and Keaton Middleton (Saginaw) and forwards Martins Dzierkals (Rouyn-Noranda), Tye Felhaber (Saginaw), Nikita Korostelev (Sarnia), JJ Piccinich (London), Jack Walker (Victoria) and Tyler Wong (Lethbridge) back to their junior clubs.
William Corrin, Taylor Doherty, Eric Faille, Brett Findlay, TJ Foster, Jeff Glass, Jon Jutzi, Daniel Maggio, Mason Marchment, Ryan Massa, Brenden Miller, Ty Stanton, Ethan Werek and Chase Witala have been reassigned to the AHL Toronto Marlies, who open their minor league training camp next Monday.
The 14 players demoted have either been signed to AHL contracts or were training camp invitees.
Desrochers (selected in the 2015 Draft) and Piccinich (a 2014 selection who played one year in the NCAA) are 20 years old and going back to the OHL for overage seasons, while Dzierkals and Korostelev are 19 and head back to Rouyn-Noranda and Sarnia for another CHL season.
All have to be signed by Toronto before next June or will re-enter the NHL Draft.
Leafs current training camp roster (53 players)
Goalie(5) Andersen(Inj) Bibeau Enroth Kaskisuo Sparks
Defense(16) Brouillard Campbell Carrick Corrado Dermott Gardiner Holl Hrabarenka Hunwick Loov Marincin Nielsen Polak Rielly Valiev Zaitsev
Forwards(32) Bozak Bracco Brooks Brown Cameranesi Cliche Clune Froese Gauthier Greening Holland Hyman Johnsson Kadri Kapanen Komarov Laich Leivo Leipsic Lindberg Marner Martin Matthews Michalek Moore Nylander Prust Rychel Smith Soshnikov Timashov van Riemsdyk
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