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Pontus Holmberg

Maple Leafs Recall Erik Kallgren On Emergency Basis

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With Matt Murray still injured and Ilya Samsonov missing practice yesterday due to illness, the Maple Leafs needed a second goalie on the active roster.  That goaltender is Erik Kallgren as the team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled him while assigning forward Pontus Holmberg to AHL Toronto in a corresponding move.

Kallgren has split this season between the NHL and AHL and actually has fared better with the Maple Leafs than the Marlies.  In 10 NHL contests, the 26-year-old has a 2.67 GAA along with a .898 SV% while in 16 minor league appearances, his GAA jumps to 3.33 while his SV% dips to .884.  He’s in the final season of a two-year, two-way contract and will be eligible for restricted free agency this summer.

Holmberg, meanwhile, has acquitted himself well in his first taste of NHL action this season.  He has played in 36 games with the Leafs so far, picking up five goals and eight assists but with yesterday’s additions of Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari, playing time was going to be difficult to come by.  He’ll return to the Marlies where he has seven points in 16 games so far.

While unannounced by the team yesterday, veteran Wayne Simmonds was also papered to the minors.  But even after that, Toronto is currently over the maximum 23-player roster with Kallgren’s promotion.  Teams get two emergency goalie recalls per season that allows them to go over the limit for up to 48 hours and barring another roster move, it appears that’s what they’re going with here.

Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Three Players

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Feb 14: All three players are back up today, ready to rejoin the team and participate in tomorrow’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks. During their short stint in the AHL, Steeves scored the game-winner (assisted by Holmberg), and Woll picked up his 14th win in 15 appearances.

Feb 13: The trio of players that came up for Toronto’s last couple of games have been returned to the minors, as the team announced Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves, and Joseph Woll have all been loaned to the Toronto Marlies. The Maple Leafs don’t play until Wednesday and are now home until Sunday.

Woll’s inclusion could indicate that Matt Murray will return to the team this week after skating with the club in recent days. The injured netminder hasn’t played since January 17, leaving Ilya Samsonov to carry the load almost every night. Woll got his first game action of the season on Saturday in the second half of a back-to-back, but the Maple Leafs left him out to dry, allowing 40 shots from the Columbus Blue Jackets, which resulted in four goals.

Steeves, 23, also landed his first NHL action of the season, playing in both games against Columubs and registering three shots on net. The young forward is still looking for his first NHL goal but will be hard-pressed to earn regular minutes in the Maple Leafs lineup this season.

That’s partly because of the strong rookie season for Holmberg, who has 13 points in 35 games as the team’s fourth-line center. The emergence of Holmberg has been a nice bonus for a Maple Leafs team that hasn’t added a homegrown regular to the forward group for a few years now, instead securing depth through free agency.

With the team off for two days, this is essentially a cost-saving move, as all three are on two-way contracts. Still, because of the long-term injured reserve relief they are using, there’s no cap accumulation by sending them down. The Marlies play tonight, and you may see at least Holmberg back up for Wednesday’s game.

Matt Murray Placed On Injured Reserve

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The Toronto Maple Leafs are back from the All-Star break and will be back in action with a home-and-home against the Columbus Blue Jackets starting tomorrow night. It doesn’t look like they’ll have one of their regular goaltenders for the back-to-back situation, though, as Matt Murray landed on injured reserve today.

Toronto has recalled Pontus Holmberg, Alex Steeves, and goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL.

It’s been the same story for Murray this season. Pretty good when healthy – not healthy often enough. This is his second stint on injured reserve, after missing a month with a groin injury earlier on. He’s played in 19 games so far, posting a .911 save percentage, but hasn’t appeared since January 17. The lion’s share of the goaltending duties will again fall on Ilya Samsonov, who has done well so far carrying the load but is still relatively inexperienced.

Samsonov, 25, set a career-high with 39 starts last season and finished with his worst performance since debuting in 2019. While his .913 save percentage so far for the Maple Leafs is encouraging, pushing him every night is a recipe for disaster. Toronto needs two goaltenders that they can rely on, and so far, that hasn’t been Murray.

Perhaps it will be Woll, who is having a fantastic bounce-back after recovering from injury. Through 14 games for the Toronto Marlies, he is 13-1 with a .930 save percentage. The 24-year-old was a highly touted prospect at one point, but has struggled to stay healthy through the early part of his career and has just four appearances in the NHL so far.

There is no clear timeline for Murray’s return, but he was on the ice today at practice. Since he has been out so long, his IR stay can be backdated to allow his activation whenever deemed healthy enough to go.

Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Pontus Holmberg

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With Dryden Hunt on waivers, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Pontus Holmberg from the minor leagues. The young forward was sent there to get his legs back after a recent illness, and ended up registering two points in three games.

After a rather embarrassing loss to their rivals on Saturday night, the Maple Leafs will try to get things moving back in the right direction with a game against the New York Islanders tonight. Holmberg will likely be back in the lineup, given how well he has stabilized the bottom six this year.

The sixth-round pick looks like he is a classic late-bloomer, who became a star in Sweden before quickly making an impact for Toronto this year. In 28 games he has 11 points and has been excellent defensively.

With Hunt ticketed for the minors (or another team), the group may also be getting some reinforcements back on defense. T.J. Brodie is set to stay out with the main group for morning skate, according to Mark Masters of TSN. Brodie is working his way back from a rib injury and is currently on injured reserve.

Toronto Maple Leafs Reassign Pontus Holmberg

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One of the bright spots this season for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been the emergence of Pontus Holmberg as a legitimate NHL option so early into his North American career. After missing the last few games with an illness, though, the team has reassigned the young forward to the minor leagues. The move likely will give him a chance to get back into game shape before returning to the NHL squad down the road.

Holmberg, 23, was a sixth-round pick of the Maple Leafs in 2018, but quickly became one of the most successful players in the SHL. By last season, he was scoring near a point-per-game pace with Vaxjo HC, took home Swedish forward of the year, and was SHL playoff MVP after leading the postseason in goals and points.

After just 15 games in the minor leagues, where he racked up eight points, he was with the Maple Leafs, taking a regular shift and scoring 11 points in 28 games. For a team so heavily invested in their top players, entry-level performers are critical. Holmberg will likely be back with the NHL club at some point, though it may not be for a little while. The Toronto Marlies are headed out on a long road trip and won’t play another home game until February. Holmberg obviously doesn’t need to stay with the team for that entire stretch, but the team may want to let him get back into the swing of things with several minor league tilts.

Jake Muzzin Out Indefinitely With Cervical Spine Injury

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The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t getting Jake Muzzin back for a while. Toronto announced today that Muzzin is dealing with a cervical spine injury and is out indefinitely. His status will be re-evaluated in late February. Meanwhile, the team has also placed T.J. Brodie on injured reserve with an oblique injury and recalled Mac Hollowell and Pontus Holmberg from the minor leagues.

Muzzin, 33, has suffered several head, neck, and back injuries over the last few years, leading to his early exit from multiple playoff series and a relatively low number of regular season appearances. In 47 games last year he registered just 14 points, the lowest total of his career, and he failed to make it through even four contests this season before suffering this latest injury.

It hasn’t even been limited to his time in the NHL. Muzzin suffered a serious back injury in minor hockey as well, causing him to miss the entire 2005-06 season after being drafted 11th overall by the Soo Greyhounds in the OHL Priority Selection. While he would return from that injury and play a partial season for the Greyhounds in 2006-07, it caused him to fall considerably in NHL drafts, with the Pittsburgh Penguins eventually taking him 141st overall.

A warrior who can play a physical game but also contribute offensively, he would eventually become captain of the Greyhounds and quickly make his way to the NHL, winning a Stanley Cup with the Los Angeles Kings in 2014. By 2015 he was playing with Canada at the World Championship (where he won gold) and then again at the World Cup in 2016 (where he won gold).

Now, with his career seemingly in jeopardy, he sits at 683 regular season games and 294 career points. Muzzin received votes for the Norris Trophy in both 2016 and 2019, finishing 11th in the latter.

Though they would certainly rather a healthy, effective Muzzin in the lineup, his placement on LTIR earlier this season did open up some flexibility for the Maple Leafs. They still have quite a few question marks on the back end (especially with Brodie now out of the lineup) but inserted Jordie Benn over the weekend to add some extra physicality (and apparently, game-winning goals). If Muzzin is going to spend the entire season on the shelf, it would allow them to make an acquisition of some sort.

Toronto Maple Leafs Activate Jordie Benn

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One of the reasons why the Toronto Maple Leafs struggled so much out of the gate was defensive depth, with Jake Muzzin and Timothy Liljegren injured at the same time. Another missing player during that stretch was Jordie Benn, who is now back after being activated off injured reserve.

The Maple Leafs have sent Pontus Holmberg and Victor Mete back to the minor leagues to make room for the incoming veteran defenseman. The team also released Danny DeKeyser from his AHL professional tryout contract.

Benn, 35, signed a one-year, $750K contract with the Maple Leafs this summer as a potential seventh or eighth defenseman but suffered an injury in training camp that has kept him out the first month of the season. The veteran of 595 regular season games will give the team a different look on the back end, should they decide to insert him into the lineup.

More physical than any of the team’s other defenders, he could add some bite to the third pairing should they suffer another injury. With Liljegren back the group has seemed to stabilize for the time being but a lot of pressure will be put on the defense as they deal with injuries to both Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov.

Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Pontus Holmberg

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Looking for a change, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled Pontus Holmberg from the AHL. To make room, Wayne Simmonds has been sent back to the Toronto Marlies. Simmonds cleared waivers at the beginning of the season, so can be assigned freely for the time being.

Holmberg, 23, has turned into an interesting prospect for the Maple Leafs. A sixth-round pick in 2018, he developed into a star player in Sweden, winning a league championship and being named playoff MVP. He followed up the impressive postseason performance with a 41-point season, and even got a taste of North American hockey with a six-game look with the Toronto Marlies last spring.

Still, despite all that success, it’s hard to imagine Holmberg really being the key to unlocking the Maple Leafs this season. At best he is probably an upgrade in the bottom six, capable of playing center or wing. But with just two assists in seven games with the Marlies this season, the offensive upside of a player like Holmberg is limited.

With Toronto struggling to score at even-strength (and in general), they’ll need their stars to play better – not just the bottom-six.

Pontus Holmberg Assigned To AHL

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The Toronto Marlies are getting a pretty impressive reinforcement, as Pontus Holmberg has been assigned to the AHL club by the Toronto Maple Leafs now that his SHL season is over. Signed to an entry-level contract last June, the young forward was loaned back to Sweden for most of this year.

Holmberg, 23, was a sixth-round pick (156th overall) of the Maple Leafs back in 2018 and for the first few years after his draft, appeared to be nothing special. That changed during last year’s SHL playoffs though, when the Vaxjo forward scored seven goals and 14 points in 14 games, winning the championship and being named playoff MVP. He was then named Swedish Forward of the Year, earned a place on the World Championship squad, and suddenly was a rising star. The Maple Leafs signed him to an entry-level contract and sent him back to the SHL to continue his development, with a much bigger role on Vaxjo.

This season, his progression continued, with 41 points in 46 games and a place on Sweden’s Olympic team. That was a big accomplishment, given that the rest of the roster was made up of veterans. In fact, Holmberg was the only player in the entire group that could be considered an NHL prospect and was several years younger than everyone else.

While he still has much to prove on this side of the ocean, the Maple Leafs have certainly done well with some of their late-round Swedish picks in the past. Andreas Johnsson (202nd overall), and Pierre Engvall (188th overall) both took a similar path to the organization and became NHL regulars within a few years of coming over. If they can pull off the same trick with Holmberg, it’s another low-cost forward to support the high-priced talent at the top of their roster.

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