The Toronto Maple Leafs have way more players than they need.
Competition will be fierce at the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp this year because the team not only has their usual high number of cheap NHL players competing for depth roles on the team, but they also have a bevvy of prospects looking to make the jump.
Because the Leafs have committed most of their salary cap money to their star players, they like to create a very competitive environment for their remaining roster spots.
This has led to them leading the league over the last three years in waiver claims against, but it’s also led to three-straight years of flirting with a .700 points-percentage, so it’s clearly a strategy that works.
The question for right now, however, is:
How Many Roster Spots Are Available to Win on the Toronto Maple Leafs?
The team still has the same top-eight as they had last year (Marner, Matthews, Bunting, Tavaers, Nylander, Kerfoot, Kampf, Engvall) and has added Calle Jarnkrok to ostensibly join their shut-down line.
Nicholas Aube-Kubel is a player who they hope will be this year’s Michael Bunting, and he is pretty much guaranteed to be on the roster, at least to start.
It would shock me to my very bones if Nick Robertson was also not on the opening night roster. This team needs secondary scoring and he’s by far their best option for that. If they stick with the 3rd line as an offense-free deadzone, they have no choice. There is also a spot on the 2nd PP unit open with Spezza gone, and Robertson is a lock for that.
That means there is one spot on the roster unless or until they trade Kerfoot, as well as the role of the 13th forward.
Competing for those spots: Kyle Clifford, Wayne Simmonds, Denis Malgin, Joey Anderson, Nick Robertson, Alex Steeves, Nick Abruzzese, Adam Gaudette, Roni Hirvonen, Pontus Holmberg.
I think Malgin and Anderson get the two spots out of camp.
On defense, there are no spots available.
Rielly, Brodie, Giordano, Muzzin, Sandin, Liljegren, Holl makes seven. They are all NHL players and whoever sits out of those guys will be 10 x better than the next best healthy scratch in all of the NHL. They also have Victor Mete and Jordie Benn for some reason.
And there are also Topi Niemela, Mikko Kokkonen and Mac Hollowell, but absolutely no path for them to play in the NHL, currently.
So, in conclusion, the Toronto Maple Leafs have one open roster spot in the starting lineup, and, assuming they clear up their cap issues and can have one, an extra forward spot is potentially also available.