Toronto Maple Leafs: Cuts Were Made, No Real Surprises

The Toronto Maple Leafs made some cuts today ahead of their regular season opener on Wednesday.

No real surprises here as the Toronto Maple Leafs had a roster of 49, now down to 26 and they’ll still have to make a few more decisions.

Timothy Liljegren was left on the roster, but he will not be suiting up for the Leafs as the decision to send him back to Sweden (Rogle BK) or the AHL is still being discussed.

I’m of the opinion that keeping him in Toronto and keeping a close eye on him is the right way to go about this, but we’ll see what the final word is.

Phew.

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Glad we got that out of the way.

The Leafs (along with every other NHL team) have until tomorrow at 5 PM to cut their NHL rosters down to 23 players, while also being cap-compliant.

As for the Joffrey Lupul situation, it’s supposed to be dealt with by the Leafs first game and as soon as the puck touches the ice, his cap won’t affect them.

That’s if the league finds no fault in his injured status.

Let’s get to the cuts.

Cuts, Glory, Leafs

The two headliners for the cuts made are Kasperi Kapanen and Miro Aaltonen, the former of the two not serving as any big surprise.

However, I am a little surprised by Aaltonen being sent down to the Toronto Marlies, but it makes sense.

Add in Dermott too, who actually had a pretty good camp, all in all, this kid will make his mark soon, don’t worry too much about that.

Here’s the full list.

Carl Grundstrom (SHL)
Miro Aaltonen (AHL)
Frederik Gauthier (AHL)
Andreas Johnsson (AHL)
Kasperi Kapanen (AHL)
Tobias Lindberg (AHL)
Trevor Moore (AHL)
Nikita Soshnikov (AHL)
Dmytro Timashov (AHL)
Mason Marchment (AHL)
Travis Dermott (AHL)
Justin Holl (AHL)
Andrew Nielsen (AHL)
Michael Paliotta (AHL)
Rinat Valiev (AHL)
Kasimir Kaskisuo (AHL)
Colin Greening (waivers)
Chris Mueller (waivers)
Kerby Rychel (waivers)
Ben Smith (waivers)
Vincent LoVerde (waivers)
Garret Sparks (waivers)

What a terrifying (good) AHL team, eh?

I’m only a little concerned with Rychel and Sparks on waivers, more so with the former, but they may just slip by.

Let’s get to who’s left on the team.

Leafs Roster

I’m not going to list the entire team – here’s the link for it – because we already knew 95% of the players that were going to be on the final roster.

What I will do is mention the bubble players, the ones that were talked about during preseason play.

Eric Fehr
Josh Leivo
Dominic Moore
Andreas Borgman
Connor Carrick
Timothy Liljegren
Martin Marincin
Roman Polak
Calle Rosen

Now, let’s speculate as to which of those players will remain when the final roster is announced.

It’s reported that the Leafs might roll with 14 forwards, meaning there will be two in the press box (definitely Leivo and one of Fehr or Moore).

I’m not even going to try and guess who’s it going to be, but I’d like to see Fehr in the lineup, he’s earned it.

That leaves the 10 defensemen left, one of which is Liljegren and we know he’ll be going to the AHL or back to Sweden, so that’s nine left.

I’m going to say that Carrick’s locked up the bottom right spot and that one of Borgman or Rosen will take the bottom left, with Marincin being the seventh defender.

From just reading posts on Twitter, it seems as though Borgman is the favorite, meaning that Rosen will most likely head to the Marlies.

Marincin will sit in the press box and Polak will be released, or just continue to practice, but I don’t think that’s what he wants to do.

There’s your 2017-18 Leafs team, condensed down to a 23 man, cap-compliant roster.

Next: A Kids Game

Lastly, my heart and prayers go out to everyone affected by the tragedy in Vegas.

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