On Thursday, May 6th, Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Frederik Andersen began his three-game conditioning stint with the Toronto Marlies.
This conditioning stint will determine if Andersen is fit to play. If he is deemed fit to play, he will then be taken off of Long Term Injury Reserve (LTIR) and, one assumes, inserted back into the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup.
Andersen has been out since March 19th with a lower-body injury. In the six games Andersen played before his injury, it was clear that he was not playing at 100%.
His record in those six games was 1-5-0 with a 3.84 GAA and a .862 SV%. Both stats well below his career average. (All stats from Hockey-Reference.com)
Toronto Maple Leafs Placed Andersen on LTIR
When it was first reported that Andersen was injured, he was listed as Day-To-Day, but on April 9th, the team placed Andersen on LTIR retroactive to March 19th.
The move to put Andersen on LTIR was made when the Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas needed to make room in the salary cap to add Riley Nash. According to Capfriendly.com, even though Nash was on IR in Columbus, Toronto still had to acquire him and his cap hit before they could then place him on LTIR.
Despite being on IR in Columbus, Toronto still had to fit Nash under the cap before placing him on IR/LTIR.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) April 9, 2021
Our assumption is the #Leafs made a recall, got close to the ceiling, placed Andersen, acquired Nash, then placed Nash on LTIR.
But we're working on confirming all that.
On April 10th, capfriendly.com confirmed what the Maple Leafs did to fit Nash under the team’s salary cap and that did include placing Andersen on LTIR.
Before putting him on LTIR, the team had to recall both Martin Marincin and Michael Hutchinson. This brought the team to within $26,973 of the $81.5 million salary cap.
Took some time but we got it 👇
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) April 10, 2021
To max LTIR relief the #Leafs recalled Marincin and Hutchinson which got them $26,973 from the limit.
The club then placed Andersen on LTIR giving them an LTI Salary Pool of $5,000,000. They then acquired Nash
Nash is not on LTI as of yet pic.twitter.com/Im141fqyqb
Toronto Maple Leafs Loan Andersen To Toronto Marlies
Since Andersen is on LTIR, he can be loaned to the Toronto Marlies for three games or six days without counting towards the salary cap. This type of loan is strictly for players on LTIR and it is used to see if a player is fit to play.
In the first game of his three-game conditioning stint, Andersen played in the first half of the Marlies game on May 6th. He allowed two goals on 14 shots and looked a bit shaky at the beginning, but that is to be expected from a player who hasn’t played a game in over a month.
If Toronto uses the three games format of this loan, then Andersen will play in both of the Marlies next two games which will be played on May 14th and May 17th.
The Toronto Maple Leafs last game of the NHL regular season is on May 14th. So, if Andersen is deemed fit to play after his three AHL games, he can return to the Leafs line-up without counting against the salary cap because the salary cap doesn’t count during the NHL playoffs.
Even if Andersen is deemed fit to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, I still firmly believe that the Leafs net now belongs to Jack Campbell. I hope that Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe gives Campbell the start for Game 1 of the playoffs.