The Toronto Maple Leafs have waived two players.
Faced with a cap crunch brought on by the impending return of Zach Hyman, the Toronto Maple Leafs have no choice but to try and send a few players to the Marlies in order to fit him in under the cap.
Unfortunately, they seem to value Cody Ceci more than they value having spare players around.
Then again, maybe not.
Perhaps a trade is being worked on. Perhaps they see something in Ceci that I do not. Perhaps teams are low-balling them instead of helping them with their biggest problem.
You just don’t know, and they aren’t talking.
Toronto Maple Leafs Roster
The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed Nic Petan and Martin Marincin on waivers for the purpose of sending them to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies.
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Earlier this week the Leafs “loaned” Petan to the Marlies, but in order to send him down for an indeterminate amount of time, he must clear waivers.
He did clear waivers earlier, so he probably will again. Marincin likely will too.
In order to be cap complaint, the Leafs need to demote one more player on top of these two. It will likely be Spezza or Timashov.
Once all three are on the Marlies, Hyman can return and the Leafs will be at full strength.
While I am a proponent of sending out Ceci (even if he’s OK, he isn’t a top pairing guy and so his $4.5 million dollar cap hit makes him easily expendable) the Leafs signed him to flip him for an asset and there’s no point in rushing.
The waiver thing isn’t as bad as it seems.
I am relatively sure that if they play one game without a full lineup, they get some kind of bonus or free pass that will allow them to call someone back up.
There is also the fact that the Leafs AHL team plays in the same city. As long as the Leafs play at home, they don’t need extra roster players (you can’t insert them in the middle of a game) and can access them just as easier if they’re in the AHL.
If the Marlies head out on the road, the Leafs can simply get them to leave behind their preferred extra man.
The Leafs also don’t play back-to-back road games until March. That means that if they play a game on the road without an extra guy in the pressbox, and if someone is injured, that player’s replacement can fly out from Toronto in plenty of time to play the next game.
With these three facts in mind (1. AHL team in Toronto 2. No back-to-backs on the road till march 3. A rule about playing shorthanded) the Leafs are in no need to give Ceci away.
They can simply keep him and hope a trade materializes that works for them. (And I’ll damn near guarantee he gets traded this year).
It would suck to lose Petan or Marincin, because both are way above average for replacement players, but they’re hardly core players, so the risk is minimal. Both players have been shopped for weeks, so it’s unlikely anyone wants them anyways.
As we saw last week, Petan can dominate in the AHL (5 points in 2 games) and he fit in alright on the top line the other night. If (or when) the Toronto Maple Leafs have a coach who’d play a 4th line of Petan-Spezza-Shore the Leafs could do some real damage against other team’s worst lines.
But for now, it’s no big loss. Having solid NHL players in depth roles is partly what’s so good about this Leafs team. People erroneously have said things like “they have no depth because Dubas forced league minimum players upon him” but in reality the reason Dubas can rely on league minimum players is that his peers are so bad at assessing talent.
Solid NHL players – like Petan and Marincin – are routinely available for free because teams don’t value skilled players who can’t crack a top-six, or defenseman who provide no offense.
It really does feel like the Leafs are playing Chess while everyone else plays Checkers. Petan and Marincin will clear waivers, and the Leafs will continue to dress an allstar team while manipulating the salary cap to their heart’s delight.