The Toronto Maple Leafs have finished the weirdest training camp in the history of the franchise.
After nearly four months off, the Toronto Maple Leafs held a mid-July training camp that featured no media, a new secretive injury category, and a lot of anxiety.
The Leafs have announced the 30 players they will take with them into “the bubble” and will play one mid-season-pre-season game against Montreal on Tuesday.
Then, next Sunday, they will play one of their play-in series against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Toronto Maple Leafs End Camp
Training camp ended with the Leafs announcing their roster, and holding one final practice with Nick Robertson in and Freddie Gauthier out.
This is what I predicted months ago, and so I hope it comes to pass. Incorrectly, I also predicted the Leafs would play Rasmus Sandin (because it is absolutely bonkers, bordering on idiotic, to leave such a player on the bench).
The #leafs official roster now stands at 30 players: pic.twitter.com/rsZ03OtMGD
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) July 25, 2020
It seems the Leafs believe in Cody Ceci a lot more than I do, but the good thing at least is that Sheldon Keefe is going to alter his lines a lot, so we will likely only see Ceci on the top pairing when reporters used to listing Rielly first write the lines out.
In reality, I Muzzin and Holl should see some extremely tough minutes, while the Leafs coach picks his spots with the Riellly line. I would also expect him to mix Rielly/Barrie together when appropriate, and to eventually have Sandin in the lineup.
It is just really misguided to have a player like Sandin and not use him, so I can’t see this lasting.
Looking at the roster above, it’s kind of weird that the Toronto Maple Leafs only took 30 players when they can take 31. You aren’t allowed to bring more players into the bubble, so I don’t know why they wouldn’t take full advantage.
They are bringing in Andreas Johnsson, so until he can play they only have three extra forwards. There must be an explanation, but I don’t know what it is.
Adam Brooks and Kenny Agostino have been sent home. Nic Petan – originally left off the camp roster – is in.
An additional surprise is Timothy Liljegren. He was the first guy deemed “unfit to play” and some people mistakenly took that literally – as in, they started talking about how he showed up for camp in poor phsyical condition.
This turned out to be false, he had just a slight injury, and he may eventually see some action.
The games start for real next Sunday.