Absolutely Huge News Day for the Toronto Maple Leafs

To say that the Toronto Maple Leafs had an eventful week would be an understatement.

As hard as it is to believe, only one week ago today, the Toronto Maple Leafs were heading to Pittsburgh to play their first game outside of Canada in 18 or so months, and the season was still considered to be off to a pretty good start.

The loss to the Rangers was clearly a case of losing to a hot goalie, and while the Leafs didn’t exactly destroy San Jose, it was a game they’d usually score their way to victory in.  Then the Pittsburgh game was an unmitigated disaster and suddenly everything that had happened before it took on darker tones.

The Leafs were unable to rebound against Carolina, but finally snapped their four game losing streak against Chicago on Wednesday.   The team is in great shape going forward, because they are still vastly underperforming their expected goals, and once Marner and Matthews start scoring, the team will be back to it’s old self.

Even though the Leafs are coming off a win, the time since their last game has been filled with news, so let us recap it all.

Toronto Maple Leafs News

The biggest news was that franchise defenseman Morgan Rielly signed a brand new eight year contract to stay with the team for his entire (or at least the vast majority of his) career.

This is a great move for the team because it works on more than just salary caps and analytics.  It’s a player the Leafs drafted, developed into a superstar, and who they’ll keep for his entire career.  It’s an absolutely fantastic development and all the other nonsense we usually get so caught up in is secondary.

The Second biggest news is that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be getting their back-up goalie back tonight. Petr Mrazek returns from injury, preventing the Leafs from having to use Michael Hutchinson a second time.  Mrazek will start tonight against the Detroit Red Wings.

The Leafs have also placed Michael Amadio on waivers. He played three games, and if he doesn’t get claimed, which he most likely won’t, then he’ll be back again when the Leafs need him.  If he does get claimed, it’s not to big of a deal as the Leafs have lots of depth options of similar players.

Finally, the last bit of news is perhaps the most interesting.  Justin Holl will be a heathy scratch tonight.  That means that for just the second time this season, Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin will both play.

The Leafs have subsequently mixed up their pairings, and the Leafs will move Dermott up to play with Rielly, while having Brodie pair with Muzzin.  The two rookies will team together on a dynamic third pairing.