The Toronto Maple Leafs have added two players to their roster at the last minute before they need to submit final rosters to open the 2025-26 season. A fresh and new goaltender and forward have been added to the mix.
Announced through multiple sources, the Maple Leafs have claimed forward Sammy Blais and goaltender Cayden Primeau from the Montreal Canadiens.
TOR claims Cayden Primeau and Sammy Blais
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) October 6, 2025
Primeau, who was once seen as the future of Montreal's crease, has spent his entire career so far with the Canadiens but has never been in a settled position. As recent as last season, the 26-year-old netminder played the majority of his year with the AHL's Laval Rocket, where he earned a .927 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average in 26 games. He did manage to appear in 11 games for the Canadiens, but had a very bad .836 save percentage in those games.
This is clearly a move where the Leafs see him as a better option than James Reimer, who they signed to a professional try-out and was hoping to bridge the gap between now and whenever netminder Joseph Woll is back from his absence. It might not be the perfect solution, but you never know if Reimer could carry the load in Toronto once again, or if Dennis Hildeby would truly be a solid NHL backup for the early part of the season.
If it all fails, then the Leafs can of course just send Primeau down to the AHL and back through the waiver wire. Primeau is under contract for just this upcoming season at a league-minimum $775,000 AAV.
Adding Sammy Blais might also mean some departures of other players. Blais played his entire 2024-25 campaign on the Calder Cup-winning Abbotsford Canucks, but before that was seen as a fairly useful depth forward for both the New York Rangers and St. Louis Blues. In his most recent NHL season, he averaged just 9:41 TOI and scored a total of seven points in 53 games for the Blues in the 2023-24 season. His best campaign came just a year prior, where he scored nine goals and 25 points split between the Rangers and Blues.
Blais signed a one-year, league-minimum $775,000 AAV contract with Montreal this past summer and now finds himself gone before they even started the season.
But of course, there is always a connection. Blais found most of his success while playing under current Toronto head coach Craig Berube during his time in St. Louis. Having that as an extra forward isn't the worst thing possible.
With these acquisitions, the Leafs are technically over the salary cap limit by $820,446, according to PuckPedia. But, they do still technically have Hildeby on the roster and his $841,667 AAV alone would make them compliant, even with the Leafs carrying two extra forwards after adding Blais.
The Maple Leafs have not officially announced their season-opening roster but with rookie Easton Cowan being an extra skater at Monday morning practice, the addition of Blais only adds to the likelihood that the 20-year-old winger might be starting his season with the AHL's Toronto Marlies.
There are still more moving parts -- it's the start of the Leafs' season, of course.