The Toronto Maple Leafs claimed left-shot winger Sammy Blais and goaltender Cayden Primeau off waivers on Monday.

They also officially managed to pass all four of their waived players — Dakota Mermis, Henry Thrun, Matt Benning, and Michael Pezzetta — through the waiver wire and will keep them under club control to start the 2025-26 season.

At the same time, the Leafs rolled out these lines in Monday’s practice:

This would appear to indicate that perhaps Easton Cowan does not have a roster spot locked up, and with Sammy Blais now claimed, Blais will assume a 13th or 14th forward spot on the NHL roster.

Sammy Blais: a known quantity to Craig Berube on a league-min contract

Craig Berube is already familiar with Blais, given that he won a Cup with Blais in the lineup in St. Louis and coached him for parts of two seasons afterward. Truthfully, it was a tad surprising that the Leafs didn’t sign Blais in either of the past two summers.

In Berube’s first summer in Toronto, Blais was a pure reclamation project coming off a tough 2023-24 season back in St. Louis. He ended up with the Canucks organization, where he didn’t play a single NHL game last season but turned in a really strong AHL campaign, finishing with 40 points in 51 regular-season appearances, followed by a Calder Cup-winning AHL playoff run where he finished third in team scoring with 19 points in 23 games.

Blais ended up signing with his hometown Montreal Canadiens this past summer. He appeared in three preseason games and picked up one assist, which came in the game where the Canadiens’ B team beat most of the Leafs’ A team in Toronto.

Blais, a big body at 6’2 and over 200 pounds, owns a great shot with soft hands. His footspeed and the consistency of his engagement level have held him back, including in the physical department. He’s not a player who can bank only on producing offense at the NHL level.

It’s nice that there is already familiarity built in between the player and coach, and it doesn’t hurt in any capacity to have Blais around the roster with his one-year, $775K contract. As a 13th forward, he would make a lot more sense than today’s currently listed 13th forward, Easton Cowan.

It was maybe mildly surprising to see the Leafs claim a forward given their veteran depth at the position already — they added Pezzetta, Travis Boyd, and Vinni Lettieri this summer – but none of them particularly stood out in camp. They don’t (or shouldn’t) want Cowan sitting in the press box watching games as the 13th man, either, so it’s understandable to add more depth.

An extra goalie with Joseph Woll’s status still unknown

In net, there was almost a guarantee of a move of some kind. The Leafs gave James Reimer a look on a PTO, and he wasn’t particularly convincing in half a preseason game, although it’s fair to debate how much of it was the goalie’s fault.

“That’s still up in the air. I don’t have a lot to say on that. He’s had no time. I mean, he got a half a game … that’ll play itself out right now.”

– Craig Berube on Reimer’s future

Berube’s quote above was a pretty clear indication that something was in the works, and it turns out Cayden Primeau is the move.

The 6’3, now 26-year-old Primeau was once quite highly regarded, but he has largely struggled in the 55 NHL games he’s played, putting up an .884 save percentage. Last season with Montreal, he appeared in 11 NHL games and posted an .836 save percentage, spending the majority of his time in the AHL as a result (26 games in Laval, with a much better .927 save percentage).

I’m honestly a little surprised that this is the goalie the Leafs opted for, particularly over Nico Daws, Clay Stevenson, and Michael Dipietro. But I also won’t pretend to be a goaltending expert. In general, it makes sense that the organization claimed a goalie, given Hildeby would preferably play far more games than last season, and they weren’t sure about Reimer after taking a brief look (or maybe they think Reimer needs more preparation time). We will see if the Leafs claimed the right one.

In terms of cap implications, the situation remains a little convoluted, given the Joseph Woll situation. If Woll remains on IR, along with Scott Laughton, PuckPedia is showing the Leafs could keep all of Cowan, Blais, and Myers around as extras on the NHL roster, and still have just under $22K in cap space. The gap in Primeau’s $775K salary and Hildeby’s $841K salary creates enough room to allow them to keep all three if they want, but it wouldn’t make sense to keep Cowan around as an extra. So, we’ll see how this shakes out.

To start the regular season, we might be looking at Blais and Myers as the two extras, along with the rest of the 18 starters, but it’s also worth wondering if Brad Treliving can shed David Kampf’s salary at some point soon.

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