The Toronto Maple Leafs have not yet released any of their schedule for next season, but other teams have begun to reveal some of the dates of their exhibition games.
Based on the information made available thus far, the Leafs will be starting training camp one week later because of the World Cup of Hockey. The annual rookie tournament in London, ON the last two seasons has taken place the second weekend of September and training camp opens three or four days later.
This year, the rookie tournament will take place at Budweiser Gardens with Toronto, Montreal, Pittsburgh and Ottawa rookies from September 16 - 18, the same weekend that the World Cup begins at Air Canada Center in Toronto, which logically means that training camp will open around September 21 or 22nd.
It is possible that training camp will not open at the MasterCard Center in Etobicoke, ON with practice facilities needed for eight World Cup squads and that the Leafs could begin outside of the GTA, as they did last season in Bedford, Nova Scotia.
In 2014 and 2015, the Leafs have played eight preseason games with Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, Philadelphia(2014) and Montreal(2015). So far, two dates have been revealed by other NHL clubs, but it is unknown whether the Leafs will play as many games with their home building unavailable for two weeks.
Last November, it was announced that Toronto and Ottawa would play at the Sasktel Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan on October 4th, which could be the first game for Mike Babcock behind the bench and Auston Matthews in a Leaf uniform (since the World Cup is scheduled to end on Saturday, October 1).
The Detroit Red Wings released their exhibition schedule last week and they will play Toronto in their traditional home and home series to close out the pre-season. The Wings will visit ACC on Friday, October 7th and the Leafs will play at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday, October 8th.
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