The Toronto Maple Leafs have been slowly whittling down their roster during the week of training camp leading up to the start of the regular season, placing forwards Kalle Kossila and Denis Malgin on waivers to loan them to European clubs, veteran minor leaguer David Warsofsky to play in the American Hockey League, and forward Nic Petan to likely take a spot on the club’s taxi squad.
On Saturday, the club placed goalie Michael Hutchinson on waivers. Hutchinson was signed to a two-year, two-way deal in October to provide depth in back of Frederik Andersen, Jack Campbell and Aaron Dell, but also to give the Leafs a goalie under contract to make available to Seattle for the expansion draft this summer.
While it is likely that Hutchinson clears and either plays for the Marlies or is the goalie on the taxi squad, it is possible that a club like New Jersey with a dilemma in net may claim the 30-year-old backup. Veteran Corey Crawford retired suddenly on Saturday, leaving the Devils with no one with any NHL experience to backup Mackenzie Blackwood.
Another issue could be what the Leafs do with Dell, who signed a one-year, $800,000 deal in October. Toronto head coach Sheldon Keefe is giving Andersen, Campbell and Dell two periods in the club’s Blue and White Scrimmage on Saturday. If Hutchinson is claimed, it may give Leafs GM Kyle Dubas pause to place the former San Jose Sharks netminder on waivers, since it would leave them with the inexperienced tandem of Joseph Woll and Ian Scott behind Andersen and Campbell.
If Dubas opts to avoid a repeat of 2018 when they lost both Curtis McElhinney and Calvin Pickard on waivers just before the season, he may have to keep three goalies on the 23-man roster.
The scrimmage will be aired on both Sportsnet and TSN and features a split squad, with two of the four forward lines and two defensive pairings expected to be on the opening night roster.
Team Blue features the expected top line of Joe Thornton, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, what is expected to be the fourth line of Alexander Barabanov, Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds, and the defensive pairings of Morgan Rielly - TJ Brodie and Rasmus Sandin and Travis Dermott.
Team White will have the second line unit of Jimmy Vesey, John Tavares and William Nylander, the third line (minus the injured Alex Kerfoot) of Ilya Mikheyev, Pierre Engvall and Zach Hyman, and the tandems of Jake Muzzin – Justin Holl and Mikko Lehtonen – Zach Bogosian.
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