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Toronto Maple Leafs Roster Battles: Who’s The Odd Defenseman Out?

By Tim Bayer

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a busy few days as they sort out their crowded defense corps.

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Stephane Robidas was placed on long-term injured reserve with what seems to be a lingering groin injury, freeing up a roster spot as the team gets under the 23-man limit. The Toronto Maple Leafs then claimed 22-year-old Frank Corrado off waivers, after the Vancouver Canucks placed him there. Scott Harrington, who has impressed in training camp, was sent to the minors, but the intention is likely to call Harrington back up once Robidas’ placement on LTIR kicks in tomorrow:

With all that movement, here’s what the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive depth chart likely looks like on opening night:

Matt Hunwick – Dion Phaneuf

Martin Marincin – Morgan Rielly

Jake Gardiner – Scott Harrington

Frank Corrado – Roman Polak

Picking up Corrado was a great move because he’s young and has already proven he can play NHL minutes on a pretty good team. The Canucks reasoning in letting him go was Ben Hutton outplayed him in training camp, and instead of having him sit as an eighth D, they decided it would be better for his development to play regular minutes in the AHL or get picked up by another team that could use him. The irony here is the Toronto Maple Leafs will probably use him as a seventh or eighth D unless they decide they’d rather have him in the lineup instead of Harrington, which I don’t see happening right now.

Here’s Pass It To Bulis’ Daniel Wagner on why letting Corrado hit the waiver wire was an unnecessary risk by the Canucks:

"Last season, Corrado was the only defenceman that managed to post positive possession numbers while paired with Luca Sbisa, and not just positive — he and Sbisa posted a 58.9% corsi percentage together. With the caveat that it was a small sample size, it was impressive enough that he should have been playing in the NHL.Corrado has been NHL-ready for at least two seasons and now the Canucks risk losing him for nothing. If all goes well, Corrado will slip through waivers without getting claimed, but the frustrating part is that none of this was necessary. This was not an either/or situation. It wasn’t Hutton or Corrado: they could have had both. (Vancourier.com)"

So the Leafs pick up another young defenseman who can play in the NHL right now for nothing. Cool.

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With all these bodies coming and going, the elephant on the blue line appears to be Roman Polak. Polak hasn’t been in the top six lately in practice, with Harrington appearing to have beat out the 29-year-old rearguard.

I didn’t agree with the trade to bring in Polak from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Carl Gunnarsson and a fourth-round draft pick. I’ll happily admit Polak performed better than I expected last season, but his stats are still pretty alarming. He had the worst corsi rate relative to his teammates last year among Leaf blueliners who played at least 50 games (via behindthenet). However, he also faced the second toughest quality of competition.

If Polak isn’t good enough to make the Toronto Maple Leafs, what are they going to do with him? I still think Polak has some value around the league as someone who shows toughness and physicality, so maybe the Leafs can get something for him in a trade.

Looking at recent trades around the league involving defensemen, Eric Gryba was traded from the Ottawa Senators to the Edmonton Oilers for a fourth-round pick and prospect Travis Ewanyk. Gryba is a worse player than Polak, but also carries a $1.3-million cap hit compared to Polak’s $2.9-million. This tells me Polak could probably net a third- or fourth-rounder in a trade, and if so, the Toronto Maple Leafs should pull the trigger.

If they can’t offload Polak to another team, I don’t think anybody would regret losing him on waivers or burying him in the minors for the year, a move the Toronto Maple Leafs will likely make with Robidas.

The youth movement is underway on the Leafs’ blue line, and that makes older and costlier defensemen like Polak and Robidas the odd-men out.

Next: Rumors: Dreger On Stamkos/Staal

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