The Toronto Maple Leafs reduced their roster to 26 players on Sunday, but will have to make three more cuts to get down to 23 players before the regular season roster deadline on Tuesday.
The club has sent forwards Jeremy Bracco, Adam Brooks, Emerson Clark, Rich Clune, Pierre Engvall, Colin Greening, Carl Grundstrom, Mason Marchment, Trevor Moore and Dmytro Timashov, and defensemen Andreas Borgman, Timothy Liljegren and Calle Rosen to the Toronto Marlies and placed forwards Adam Cracknell, Josh Jooris, Chris Mueller and defensemen Vincent LoVerde and Jordan Subban on waivers for the purposes of demoting them to their AHL affiliate.
Toronto completed their exhibition schedule with a 5-1 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday and head coach Mike Babcock held his cards close to the vest regarding his choices to get down to 23 players, but a phased cutdown in two segments made the most sense in terms of getting players on the bubble through waivers and down to the Marlies.
Babcock and GM Kyle Dubas still have three (or possibly four if William Nylander re-signs) decisions to make. The club is currently at 13 forwards and if Nylander agrees to a new deal before Wednesday, it is likely that they would send down center Frederik Gauthier, who played in both games against Detroit on the weekend.
Toronto is currently at nine defensemen. The top six seem set with Morgan Rielly, Ron Hainsey, Jake Gardiner, Nikita Zaitsev, Travis Dermott and Igor Ozhiganov. At most, the club will carry eight, which means one of Martin Marincin, Connor Carrick and Justin Holl will be placed on waivers.
The possibility of trading Carrick may become a factor, as might his $1.3 Million salary. Holl is someone who was a key cog in the Marlies Calder Cup victory and could be an attractive cheap option for teams looking for a right shot blueliner, while Marincin has cleared waivers before and is a flawed player at the NHL level.
The Leafs kept all four goalies. They will likely place two of them on waivers Monday. The only way that Dubas keeps three goalies on the roster is if he can trade Carrick to open up a spot or fears that McElhinney or Sparks will be claimed over someone like Marincin or Gauthier.
If they keep three, it will be temporary situation. It is possible that they will send another goalie down a week or so into the season, when every team has already settled on their tandems and unlikely to make changes so soon after they decided on their roster.
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