The Toronto Maple Leafs play their final tune-up game of the 2016 preseason versus the Red Wings tonight in Detroit (7 p.m. EST, TSN4).
The Leafs will ice their complete NHL lineup, although the exact combinations won’t be known until the pre-game line rushes. Following last night’s 2-1 loss to the Red Wings in Hamilton, Mike Babcock also mentioned that there are a few injury considerations at play.
Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Detroit Red Wings - October 8 Rosters
Rosters via @HelenStJames| TORONTO | DETROIT |
|---|---|
| Forwards | Forwards |
| Tyler Bozak | Teemu Pulkkinen |
| Nazem Kadri | Justin Abdelkader |
| William Nylander | Gustav Nyquist |
| Mitch Marner | Riley Sheahan |
| Auston Matthewes | Tomas Tatar |
| Milan Michalek | Anthony Mantha |
| Brooks Laich | Henrik Zetterberg |
| Connor Brown | Darren Helm |
| Zach Hyman | Frans Nielsen |
| Matt Martin | Dylan Larkin |
| James van Riemsdyk | Andreas Anthanasiou |
| Peter Holland | Thomas Vanek |
| Josh Leivo | |
| Defencemen | Defencemen |
| Morgan Rielly | Brendan Smith |
| Martin Marincin | Mike Green |
| Nikita Zaitsev | Jonathan Ericsson |
| Jake Gardiner | Alexey Marchenko |
| Connor Carrck | Xavier Ouellet |
| Matt Hunwick | Danny DeKeyser |
| Roman Polak | |
| Frank Corrado | |
| Goaltenders | Goaltenders |
| Frederik Andersen | Jared Coreau |
| Jhonas Enroth | Petr Mrazek |
The Leafs trimmed 18 players off the roster today but still have their toughest decisions ahead of them. They’ll need to cut at least six more players by Tuesday afternoon in order to comply with the 23-man roster limit.
The opening-night lineup projection appears to shake out along the following lines, although nothing is set in stone yet:
Toronto Maple Leafs Opening Night Projected Lines
| Left Wing | Center | Right Wing |
|---|---|---|
| Milan Michalek | Nazem Kadri | Leo Komarov |
| van Riemsdyk | Tyler Bozak | Mitch Marner |
| Zach Hyman | Auston Matthews | William Nylander |
| Matt Martin | Holland/Laich | Laich/Holland |
| Josh Leivo Colin Greening | Connor Brown | |
| Left Defence | Right Defence | |
| Martin Marincin | Morgan Rielly | |
| Jake Gardiner | Connor Carrick | |
| Matt Hunwick | Nikita Zaitsev | |
| Roman Polak | ||
| Frank Corrado | ||
| Goalies | ||
| Frederik Andersen | ||
| Jhonas Enroth |
There are 25 players listed above, meaning at least two of the extras will need to be cut by Tuesday. We can expect to see a number of these lines and pairings together tonight as Babcock will want to ice a lineup that’s as close to his opening-night iteration as possible. Tonight is the final warm-up game before the real games start on Wednesday in Ottawa, and Babcock will expect his team to ramp up to regular season mode in terms of its urgency, pace and systems play accordingly.
