Toronto Maple Leafs Week 6 News and Notes, Stats and Quotes

Injury Update

Frederik Andersen, lower body, DTD

Joe Thornton, undisclosed, DTD

Jake Muzzin, facial fracture, DTD (waiting for an update, will play with a face shield upon return).

Jack Campbell, leg, IR (he is scheduled to start tonight).

Wayne Simmonds, fractured wrist, IR (injured 02-05, timeline 6 weeks).

Rasmus Sandin, fractured foot, will be re-evaluated in mid-march

Hyman returned on Wednesday and played 21 minutes.  He had protective gear on his foot.

Matthews is currently playing with an injured wrist and wasn’t able to take face-offs in the second half of the Calgary game on Wednesday.  He’s been playing with this for much of the season.

News and Notes

We just celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the Carolina debacle, or what is now going to be known as…whatever title Disney gives it.  That’s right, Disney is apparently going to make a movie out of the David Ayres rise to fame as the emergency goaltender that defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs on 02-22-2020.

I watched that game in it’s entirety.  It was easily one of the worst games I have ever watched.  Ever.  Looking back to that fateful night, I would have gladly sat in for a tooth extraction if it meant that I missed an opportunity to watch the game.  The pain medication would have helped while watching the highlights too, as I’m sure I would have thought that I was hallucinating.

All of that aside, I’m glad that they are doing this, and I’m especially happy for David Ayres.  From everything that I’ve read, he’s just a good guy, and I cheer when good things happen to good people.  Looking back now, a year later, I view that game with a different perspective.

I’m glad it happened.  Not only for David, but because that game probably solidified the fact that Kyle Dubas was not going to spend any assets to try and improve that team.  That ended up being a smart move in my books.  The team needed to go through that embarrassment and come out the other side, better for it.

The Toronto Maple Leafs now sit in first place with a team that plays with more effort and more discipline, and an unlikely hero in David Aryes is to thank for the role he played in that evolution.  I hope the movie is a success, and I hope it’s not too painful to watch for Leaf fans.

Should the Leafs extend Morgan Rielly?  He has one more year after this one at 5 million per year.  This is obviously a topic that deserves it’s own article but I’ve been considering this for some time so I figured I would ask the question.

Morgan Rielly is a heart and soul player, and he’s the longest tenured Leaf on the roster, but I’m starting to wonder if the overall contribution he gives is going to be worth an extension in the 7-8 million dollar range.  Rielly has long been my favorite Leaf, since he was drafted, and part of me would like to see him retire in the blue and white.

Then again, Muzzin will still be under contract, and young players like Dermott (if he’s still here), Sandin, and Lehtonen, will all be cheaper options at left D and vying for playing time.  Keeping Rielly will require Dubas to move money out and I’m not sure the team gets better by giving away a contract of good value in order to keep him.

Luckily, we don’t have to think about it for another year because there’s no way Dubas does anything like that with this current group.