Competitive Camp
At every position, the Maple Leafs made it difficult for young players to break through. In net, they extended the presumptive future of their crease in Joseph Woll before free agency started to a three-year contract beyond this season. Then, they re-signed Matt Murray to a one-year league minimum contract and signed Stanley cup champion netminder Anthony Stolarz to a two-year deal.
These moves seem to lock down their NHL tandem goalies for the foreseeable future as well as giving them a third-string goalie that isn’t one of their prospects in Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov for the season. By the time Woll’s extension kicks in next year, the team will only be paying $6.17 million between so, if they work it won’t be an issue. However, it is a major gamble on finding value for a low cost.
On the blue-line, GM Brad Treliving gave them a complete makeover adding veterans; Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, and Jani Hakanpaa. Them along with re-signing the homegrown Timothy Liljegren made for a very crowded defensive group, giving them in total eight defenders making over $1 million. Not to mention, the additions of depth in Dakota Mermis, Nicolas Mattinen, and Philippe Myers.
These additions made it very unlikely for players drafted by the previous regime like Topi Niemela or Mikko Kokkonen to breakthrough. Another interesting note is the size of the team, the smallest player signed was Dakota Mermis who is 6-0 and 197lbs. This is a clear direction that the team is going and based on history as well as the draft, it is clear that Treliving is trying to make the team bigger.
Up front is where most of the controversy surrounding wanting young players lies. As I mentioned before, the team made two late signings with Steven Lorentz and Max Pacioretty both being signed this past week as they attended camp on PTOs.
Given both players made the cut, it seems likely that at least one of; Cowan, Grebenkin, or Minten would have made the team had it not been for these veteran adds. Aside from them, there were plenty of internal Marlies candidates knocking on the door like: Alex Steeves, Nick Abruzzese, and Ryan Tverberg as most notable.