The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced their 23-man roster for opening night.
The bubble players who made the cut: Dmytro Timashov, Frederik Gauthier, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Nick Shore, and Timothy Liljegren (for now).
The bubble players who are on waivers as of Noon ET: Kenny Agostino, Nic Petan, Kevin Gravel, and Garrett Wilson (injured).
Toronto Maple Leafs 2019-20 Roster
As Bill Comeau outlined earlier today, the really tricky decisions start when Zach Hyman and Travis Dermott return from LTIR in about a month, but for now, the Leafs are able to carry 23 players, with Justin Holl, Nick Shore, and Timothy Liljegren sticking around as the extras.
Liljegren will likely return to the Marlies at a later date as he can freely travel up and down on his entry-level contract. With the Leafs deep into LTIR (Nathan Horton, David Clarkson, Zach Hyman, and Travis Dermott), they needed to build a roster as close to their de-factor cap ceiling (the cap upper limit + the cap hits of the four players listed above) as mathematically possible to maximize their LTI relief as of the October 1 deadline. Liljegren’s $863k salary helps accomplish this over Nic Petan (775k) and Kenny Agostino’s (737k) cap numbers, placing them roughly $11k short of the maximum available LTI relief.
Additionally, it’s a better time to sneak NHL depth such as Nic Petan and Kenny Agostino through waivers now than it would be in a few weeks time. For now, the Leafs can carry 23 and give Liljegren some more practice time with the big club, even if he doesn’t see game action. Cap manager Brandon Pridham would’ve looked at using Egor Korshkov’s contract for these purposes as well, but at $925,000, it wouldn’t have kept them below their limit.
Nick Shore hanging around as competent right-handed C depth makes a lot of sense, while Frederik Gauthier won the 4C spot for Oct. 2 with a really good preseason. Justin Holl, meanwhile, will pick up right where he left off last year as cheap right-handed depth on the blue line to keep at the ready in the press box.
The biggest story here, of course, is the 19-year-old Sandin making the opening night roster, and yet somehow it doesn’t feel at all surprising. He made the decision for the team from the first preseason game onwards. Players with his level of hockey intelligence simply advance much quicker than others because they adapt so much more quickly to the steps up in pace; the game slows down for Sandin much more quickly than it would the average teenaged defenseman. While there will be a steep learning curve ahead and Sandin is by no means immune to the difficulty of making the NHL grade as a young defenseman, it’d be a disservice to both the Leafs and player if he wasn’t the Leafs’ #5 to start the year.
Dmytro Timashov is arguably the name that would surprise the most fans and pundits if they were told he was going to make the team just a few weeks ago — he was given a few kicks in the rear from Sheldon Keefe with healthy scratches on the Marlies last season — but he’s waiver eligible, makes less than 700k (a potentially big factor come November), and showed well enough in camp that he’s going to get his first extended look at the NHL level. There is no denying there is upside worth exploring here and it looks like his game — he can close quickly on the forecheck, protects the puck well, and sees the ice well — could potentially translate in an NHL bottom six, in addition to playing a role on the penalty kill. We’ll see if he can bring it consistently and stick at this level once he faces the grind of NHL regular season competition, though.
It’s not the complete roster picture with the return of Travis Dermott and Zach Hyman and some subsequent cap finagling still to come, but the 2019-20 Toronto Maple Leafs are now set for opening night. Game on.
