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The Toronto Maple Leafs posted another preseason victory, but at a high cost. The Leafs bested the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday, but lost a pair of defensemen to injuries. Blueliners Jordie Benn and Carl Dahlstrom left the game in the first period, forcing head coach Sheldon Keefe to press forwards Calle Jarnkrok and Alex Kerfoot into service on the back end.
Nick Robertson, Denis Malgin, and Nick Abruzzese scored for Toronto, and the tandem of Matt Murray and Erik Kallgren combined for the shutout, with the two-time Cup winner stopping 16 shots in his first action in Blue and White.
“"I wanted to make the most out of tonight, to get my feet wet a little bit." Murray said after the game. "It's been a while since I played in the real game like that and I think it went well. I had a blast doing it."
Robertson opened the scoring in the first on a short-side shot that beat Habs goalie Samuel Montembeault, while Malgin and Abruzzese added power-play markers in the second and third periods.
Keefe indicated after the game that Benn suffered a groin injury and Dahlstrom a shoulder and that both would be looked at by the Leafs medical staff on Thursday.
The loss of two more defensemen to go along with Timothy Liljegren’s hernia surgery and Jake Muzzin’s sore back may have provided the final impetus for Toronto GM Kyle Dubas and agent Lewis Gross to reach an agreement on Rasmus Sandin’s new contract, as the defenseman signed a two-year, $2.8 million deal on Thursday.
The extension represents a significant victory for Dubas and a failure for the tactics that Gross used in 2018 with William Nylander. The Leafs got Sandin on the same deal that they offered to him and signed Liljegren to this summer, instead of caving in favor of comparables to Adam Boqvist ($2.6 million AAV x 3 years), Jake Bean ($2.3 million AAV x 2 years) or Sean Durzi ($1.7 million AAV x 2 years).
Where Toronto may have shown some flexibility was paying out $450,000 of the $1.2 million salary this season in signing bonus, and giving the 22-year-old $1.6 million in year two of the deal, which would be used as the baseline for his qualifying offer when the contract is up in 2024.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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