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The Toronto Maple Leafs have faced a tight contract squeeze since the start of the regular season after signing forward Zach Aston-Reese to a one-year contract. The Leafs were at the maximum 50-pro contract limit, which did not allow them to claim anyone off of waivers and was one hurdle in their attempt to acquire defenseman Ethan Bear last week.
On Friday, the club placed forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel on waivers, and on Saturday, the Washington Capitals claimed him. The 26-year-old winger went pointless in six games with Toronto and appeared to have lost out in the club’s bottom-six competition during their five-game Western road swing.
Washington has been plagued by injuries up front, losing former Leaf Connor Brown for the season with an ACL tear and TJ Oshie out indefinitely with a lower-body injury.
The claim clears Aube-Kubel’s $1 million salary off the books and likely means that GM Kyle Dubas will not have to continue to shuffle Wayne Simmonds on and off the NHL roster for cap reasons.
Head coach Sheldon Keefe confirmed that defenseman Timothy Liljegren will make his season debut on Saturday, playing alongside Morgan Rielly on the Leafs top pairing.
"It is an adjustment coming back to play in the league. (Timothy's) still a young defenseman and doesn't have a great deal of experience, but he should be confident in how he performed for us last season, and he should be excited to come back in." Keefe said. "It gives us another really good option, but both five-on-five and penalty kill and he has the ability to play against good people. He'll have to do that here tonight. It gives us another right-hand shot in the mix, so lots of positive things there, but it's just really good for us to get another guy back on the back end."
Wayne Simmonds will take the spot of Pontus Holmberg on the third line and according to Keefe, Pierre Engvall will move to the middle with Calle Jarnkrok staying on the wing, against a Bruins club that has the top spot in the NHL with a 10-1-0 record and leads the league with 50 goals but has also maintained their excellent defensive record.
"It seems to me that a lot of the defensive things have remained the same. (Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery) has spoken to that a little bit. Defensively, they've been so strong, they really haven't touched a lot of things there.” Keefe said. “I know they have some consistency in the assistant coaches, a couple people that have remained there and they've embraced that. The penalty killing is extremely strong and offensively that they're thriving."
Ilya Samsonov (5-2-0, 2.30 GAA, .920 save %) will get the start in goal on Saturday and Erik Kallgren will go on Sunday afternoon in Carolina against the Hurricanes. Linus Ullmark (8-0-0, 2.17 GAA, .929 save % will be between the pipes for the Bruins.
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