With less than two weeks until the opening of training camp, the likely narrative regarding the Toronto Maple Leafs will be focused on new addition John Tavares, about whether the club will choose a team captain and the ongoing contractual of William Nylander, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Jake Gardiner, but some of the battles that may get lost in the mix could have an effect on the Leafs fortunes this season.
It is expected that the areas of battle at camp will be backup goalie, fourth line forwards and on the bottom defensive pairing. Based on the significant depth in the organization, the competition in net and on the wing will likely be addressed internally, but with some free agents still unsigned, it is possible that GM Kyle Dubas could extend an invite a veteran on a professional tryout to give head coach Mike Babcock more options up the middle and on the blueline.
With time running out, players not under contract are scrambling for a landing spot in North America or Europe. Winger Troy Brouwer (who was bought out of the final two years of his contract by Calgary) signed a one-year, $850,000 deal with the Florida Panthers.
The defensively starved Edmonton Oilers followed up on the signing of Jakub Jerabek by adding in former Lightning and Golden Knight blueliner Jason Garrison on a PTO, while former Hab Alexei Emelin could not lock down an NHL contract and signed a two-year deal with Avangard Omsk(KHL).
Free agents Par Lindholm and Josh Jooris are expected to battle with Frederik Gauthier for the fourth line center spot, but extending an invite to a veteran like Antoine Vermette, Daniel Winnik or 25-year-old Nick Shore are more cost-effective and proactive than being forced to trade draft picks to plug a hole at the deadline for stop gap options like Brian Boyle or Tomas Plekanec.
On defense, Connor Carrick and a group of blueliners from the Toronto Marlies (Calle Rosen, Andreas Borgman, Justin Holl, Martin Marincin) will compete to replace Roman Polak, but the Leafs have to fill one or two reserve blueline spots as well.
The development model that Toronto normally follows is when a player has options to play in the American Hockey League, they prefer to send them down and play regularly than sit idle on the NHL roster. It is possible that Babcock will implement a rotation as he did at times last season with Borgman, Rosen, Carrick and Polak, but the Leafs head coach does not have a veteran option to fall back on other than Marincin, who has proven he is not an NHL defenseman.
Could this be where a right-handed shooter like 37-year-old Kevin Bieksa or former Leaf and analytics darling Cody Franson fit in??
Dave Nonis announced the invitation of winger Mason Raymond on the final day of the Rookie Tournament in 2013. Lou Lamoriello brought in vets Curtis Glencross and Brad Boyes the week before training camp in 2015 and Polak’s addition was announced on the opening day of camp last season, so based on recent history, we should find out if Dubas adds a player on a PTO in the next week.
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