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Is a defensive shakeup coming?? Leafs vs. Lightning

January 17, 2019, 12:56 PM ET [1464 Comments]
Mike Augello
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The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to break out of their recent struggles but will face a difficult challenge, taking on the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Thursday. The Lightning have the NHL’s best record at 36-9-2 and lead the second place Leafs by 16 points in the Atlantic Division.

Toronto has lost five of their last seven games and has seen the gap between them and their division rivals shrink over the last three weeks. Boston and Montreal trail the Leafs by a point (but they have games in hand on both) and after an overtime win in Calgary on Wednesday, the ninth place Buffalo Sabres trail them by are just four points.

Thursday’s contest is the first of back-to-back games in the Sunshine State, as the Leafs will take on the Florida Panthers on Friday before returning home to play the Arizona Coyotes in a rare Sunday night home game at Scotiabank Arena.

Frederik Andersen will get the start for Toronto, with Garret Sparks expected to make his first start since December 29th on Friday.

Head coach Mike Babcock tinkered with his forward line combinations at practice on Wednesday, moving Zach Hyman back with old linemates Auston Matthews and William Nylander, Andreas Johnsson with John Tavares and Mitch Marner, and Patrick Marleau with Nazem Kadri and Kasperi Kapanen, and kept those changes in place at the morning skate on Thursday.

Babcock surprisingly did not expand the roster shakeup to his defensive pairings, continuing to put together Morgan Rielly with Ron Hainsey, Jake Gardiner with Nikita Zaitsev, and Travis Dermott with Igor Ozhiganov, in spite of the rather noticeable struggles of Gardiner and Zaitsev over recent games.

This may reflect that the Leafs head coach believes these are the best combos with the current top six and that reserves Martin Marincin, Justin Holl or calling up minor leaguer Calle Rosen would not offer any upgrade.

In the 6-3 loss to Colorado, Babcock demoted Gardiner after his faux pas on Carl Soderberg’s short-handed goal and replaced him with Dermott on the second pairing. The 22-year-old has seen a slight uptick of ice time over the last few games (19:39 vs. Nashville, 20:53 vs. Boston, 20:08 vs. Colorado), which could be an indicator that the Leafs are looking to increase his role in the second half as the playoffs approach.

Kyle Dubas is expected to pursue upgrades for his blueline before the February 25th trade deadline, but according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston, it is also possible that the Leafs GM is looking to move out existing members of his defensive corps for salary cap considerations.

Johnston indicated on FAN 590’s Ennis and Bunkis midday show on Wednesday that Toronto may attempt to move Zaitsev (who scored 36 points as a rookie and has just 16 points in 105 games since) and that his name has been circulating in NHL circles as someone that the Leafs would deal.

The 27-year-old Moscow native is in year two of a seven-year, $31.5 Million contract ($4.5 Million AAV) and moving him would likely necessitate the Leafs including an asset in the deal. Zaitsev is the best of the three right-hand shot defenseman currently on the Leafs roster and to clear the remaining five years off the contract off Toronto’s books, it may take an asset currently on the club’s NHL roster to get it done.

This type of deal may be more conducive to being made next summer, since Zaitsev has a $3 Million signing bonus due to him on July 1. He could potentially be moved by the Leafs to create cap room to re-sign Gardiner before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer or to open up space to extend or make room for the salary of a blueliner that Dubas hopes to acquire.


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