The Toronto Maple Leafs are entering the final stage of training camp, with just two exhibition games remaining and eight days until the start of the regular season against the Montreal Canadiens. The biggest question yet to be answered is whether leading scorer Auston Matthews will be available for the home opener, but over the next few days GM Kyle Dubas and head coach Sheldon Keefe will determine who will comprise the balance of the club’s roster.
There seems little doubt that Toronto will go with two goalies in Petr Mrazek and Jack Campbell and carry six defensemen in Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Justin Holl, Travis Dermott and Rasmus Sandin, with Timothy Liljegren still being waiver exempt, but up front is where the tough decisions will have to be made.
Based on the Leafs cap situation, it appears that they will be able to carry only 13 forwards and the battle for the last few spots on the roster was front and center in Toronto’s 3-1 victory over Ottawa at the Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.
Pierre Engvall scored twice (on the power play and an empty netter) in his first pre-season game, while Adam Brooks assisted on Mike Amadio’s game-winner with 1:25 left in regulation.
There should be a clearer picture once the club makes a major cutdown later this week, as it is likely that they will play close to a starting lineup on Saturday in their final preseason game against the Sens, but right now it appears that Keefe will start the campaign with Nick Ritchie playing with Matthews and Mitch Marner, and Ilya Mikheyev on the left side with John Tavares and William Nylander.
The bottom six is where things could mixed around. Michael Bunting looks to have all but locked up a roster spot with an excellent camp, some feisty play and four goals in the preseason. Wayne Simmonds, Alex Kerfoot and Jason Spezza are locks.
David Kampf has had a good first camp with Toronto and it looks like Keefe is keen on the idea of having the 6’2”, 188 lb. center playing up the middle, that leaves Pierre Engvall, Adam Brooks, newcomers Ondrej Kase, Kirill Semyonov and Josh Ho-Sang (on PTO) battling for two spots.
Semyonov has been noticeable at camp and had two assists against Ottawa on Monday, but his being waiver exempt likely works against his chances of making the opening night roster. Ho-Sang has displayed his offensive skills with four assists, but the Leafs likely want to see that over a longer period of time before signing the 25-year-old to an NHL contract, which might mean an AHL deal to start the season.
Engvall can play wing and center, has size and speed, but has long been frustrating to Keefe because of his inconsistency, while Brooks has displayed an ability to play at the NHL level in short stints over the last two seasons. The wildcard is Kase, who played only three games with Boston last season because of concussion issues.
According to Cap Friendly, the Leafs would be slightly over $80,000 under the cap carrying 13 forwards including Engvall and Kase. Dubas would be taking a big risk of having either Engvall ($1.25 million) or Brooks (making $725.000) being claimed off waivers, while Kase with injury question marks (on a one-year, $1.25 million deal) might slip through.
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