Toronto Maple Leafs competitive roster pushes young players out
The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the 2024 training camp with a clear goal; To have a competitive camp and push players out. This can be good or bad but whichever it is, remains to be seen.
Throughout the summer, Toronto Maple Leafs fans were penciling in their mock lineups with plenty of young players.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have some exciiting prospects like Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, and Nikita Grebenkin. As of the start of the NHL season; Cowan was sent back to the OHL’s London Knights, Minten is on season opening injured reserve — likely demoted to the Marlies upon his return, and Nikita Grebenkin was sent to the AHL’s Toronto Marlies for more seasoning.
Instead of giving spots to young players, they went to late veteran signings like; Max Pacioretty, and Steven Lorentz who both attended training camp on professional tryouts (PTOs). According to Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, this was all by design.
On Sportsnet’s Fan Hockey Show earlier this week he said, and I'm paraphrasing, that the Leafs did this by design to get the most out of their players by forcing them to compnete.
This competitive camp pushed out young players like; Alex Steeves, Nick Abruzzese, Easton Cowan, Nikita Grebenkin, Fraser Minten, and Timothy Liljegre in favor of veteran options who will likely only be with the team for the short term.
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.
Potential Impacts
These are all fine and good, if the additions make the team tangibly better and are a clear step above the young guys but if not, then it seems crazy. Pacioretty is going to be 36 years old just over a month into the season and has played a total of 52 games the past two seasons combined.
This is due to numerous achilles tendon injuries, one of which required surgery. When he has played, he has been quite good admittedly, racking up seven goals and 25 points. The health, age, and potential decline makes his acquisition worrisome but if he can score and mesh well in a middle-six role, it could be worth it.
Steven Lorentz is a perfectly fine player in a fourth line checking role but given the personnel already on the team; David Kampf, Pontus Holmberg, Connor Dewar, Bobby McMann, and Ryan Reaves, his addition seems almost redundant. Especially when it potentially has the ripple effect of pushing young players off the roster. (All contract information via Puckpedia.com).
On the backend, Tanev and Hakanpaa are two players with serious injury concerns with the latter having just undergone knee surgery which has caused him to start the season on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). As well, OEL was signed to a four-year contract at 33 years old, multiple years into a very public decline.
Despite a resurgence last year in a D-friendly system with the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Their presence along with a few others have seemingly pushed Liljegren out of favour with the organization as he is not expected to make the opening night lineup and is rumoured to be traded. It's looked good so far, but the jury is still out on whether this is the right move or not.
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Of course, all of these changes and their effects good or bad remain to be seen. I am skeptical of how much better Lorentz, Pacioretty, OEL, and Hakanpaa are than younger players in the organization. Hopefully, it does not cause any ill feelings or hurt development either. As of now, the Leafs are 2-1-0 to start the year but with 79 games left in the season, there is plenty of time for the record to become lopsided.