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Maple Leafs Debuting Easton Cowan In Top-Line Role

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Earlier today, Mark Masters of TSN revealed Toronto’s lines at practice, and confirmed that Easton Cowan appears all set to make his NHL debut on the Leafs’ first line tomorrow versus the Red Wings. 

The lights could not be much brighter for Toronto’s standout prospect, an Ontario native who grew up rooting for the team, to debut on Auston Matthews’ wing against Detroit tomorrow at home. Originally drafted 28th overall in 2023, Cowan quickly emerged as a standout with the London Knights, helping lead the marquee franchise to back-to-back OHL titles and a Memorial Cup. With Cowan up top, Matias Maccelli, an intriguing pickup from the Leafs during the offseason, will slot in with John Tavares and William Nylander, still a great spot for the talented playmaker as he finds his role in Toronto. 

Although Cowan had a slight statistical regression in his final season with London (96 points to 69) while also appearing in 8 fewer games, the hometown youngster is Toronto’s undisputed top prospect with legitimate top-six potential. As is a challenge for any cap-constrained team vying to extend their contention window, the emergence of players such as Cowan is critical. It is especially the case for the Leafs, given their lack of high draft picks in previous years, along with Mitch Marner’s departure, and the trading away of fellow key prospect Fraser Minten last season. Toronto was able to strike gold with their 2021 second round choice, Matthew Knies, and they hope Cowan will follow the same blueprint, soon injecting more youth into the club. 

At just 20, and having yet to play professional hockey at all, Cowan could end up back in the AHL at some point, but the Leafs have placed their prospect in an incredible opportunity to succeed right away. Many eyes will be on Cowan and how he rises to the occasion, filling in for for the currently injured Steven Lorentz. The awaited-debut will come tomorrow afternoon. 

Steven Lorentz Out With Upper-Body Injury

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  • In a separate Eastern Conference matchup, this time in the Atlantic Division, the Toronto Maple Leafs lost forward Steven Lorentz to an upper-body injury. Lorentz’s departure from tonight’s game came early in the first period after being hit by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Ben Chiarot. He skated in 1:17 of tonight’s game, and the Maple Leafs added no further comments on the severity of his injury.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Leafs Hire Mark Giordano, Three Others To Hockey Operations Roles

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired four new faces to their hockey operations department. Most notably, retired NHL defenseman Mark Giordano will join the AHL’s Toronto Marlies as a coaching advisor. Additionally, the club has hired longtime NHL skaters Steve Reinprecht and Eric Lacroix as pro scouts, and the Finnish-based Mikael Kotkaniemi as a European amateur scout.

This news officially marks a return to Toronto for Giordano, who hung up his skates as a member of the club after the 2023-24 season. Giordano was long expected to join the Maple Leafs’ staff, with general manager Brad Treliving announcing an undisclosed role for the Hall-of-Fame-hopeful in mid-September. Giordano went on to support the Leafs’ training camp and work directly with players, all the while manning a role that wasn’t yet certain. On the heels of camp, Toronto will make that distinction now, and assign Giordano to continue mentoring their prospects in the minor-leagues.

To say Giordano brings hefty experience with him would be an understatement. He played in 1,148 NHL games between 2005 and 2024 – and even had teams expressing interesting in signing him to a professional try-out at last season’s training camps. Instead, the former Calgary Flames captain opted to take a year away from a formal role in the sport. Now, he’ll return to paid roles, working under the same NHL GM that left him exposed to the Seattle Kraken in the 2021 NHL expansion draft. The Kraken acted quickly to snatch up the veteran defender, and even named him as the first captain in franchise history after he wore the ’C’ for eight years in Calgary. Giordano wouldn’t even stick in Seattle for a full season, though, getting moved to his hometown of Toronto at the 2022 Trade Deadline in what would be the start of a two-and-a-half year tenure with the Leafs.

Toronto continues the experienced additions with Reinprecht and Lacroix. Reinprecht played through 663 NHL games between 1999 and 2011, and even won the 2001 Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. He was never drafted, but earned an NHL contract after a breakout senior year at the University of Wisconsin, marked by 66 points in 37 games. That spark was enough to keep Reinprecht at the NHL level through the first 11 years of his career. He was a routine scoring option out of the middle-six, playing through three years in Colorado and four in Phoenix. As his NHL production began to taper, Reinprecht made the decision to move to Germany’s DEL in 2010, and would play through six more seasons with the Nuernberg Ice Tigers before retiring in 2016.

Lacroix was drafted – hearing his name called by Toronto in the seventh-round of the 1990 NHL Draft, back when the draft was 12-rounds long. He joined the AHL’s St. John’s Maple Leafs two years later, and quickly stood out as a productive winger in both scoring and penalty minutes. By the end of his third year in the minors, Lacroix had totaled 81 points and 161 penalty minutes in 161 games. That production didn’t translate directly to the NHL, though, with Lacroix’s career-years coming in 1995-96 and 1996-97. Those seasons were marked by 32 points and 110 penalty minutes in 72 games, and 36 points and 26 penalty minutes in 81 games, respectively. He continued his career as a depth bruiser until the 2000-01 season, when he retired with 137 points and 361 penalty minutes in 472 games.

Kotkaniemi never played at the NHL level – instead riding out a 12-year pro career in Finland, Denmark, and Germany – but he’s certainly gotten an intimate look at the league. His youngest son, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, was drafted third-overall by the Montreal Canadiens in 2018. Since then, Jesperi has played through a lofty 476 games in the NHL, with 194 points and 234 penalty minutes to show for it. Meanwhile, father Mikael has spent the last five years coaching in Finland’s U20 league, or with the country’s U17 and U18 international clubs. Before that, he had spent eight years coaching in Finland’s top two pro leagues. He’s a key member of Scandinavian hockey and should provide Toronto with an in-depth look at the next suite of Finnish and Swedish stars.

Maple Leafs Recall Top Prospect Easton Cowan

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The Maple Leafs announced that No. 1 prospect Easton Cowan has been recalled from AHL Toronto. He was expected to be included on the club’s opening night roster but was assigned to the minors on Monday as the team claimed Sammy Blais and Cayden Primeau off waivers and set their LTIR capture with defenseman Marshall Rifai. Forward Jacob Quillan has been assigned to the AHL in a corresponding move.

Whether Cowan makes his NHL debut tonight when the Leafs open their season against the Canadiens remains to be seen. The 20-year-old was a late riser in the 2023 draft, fueled by a strong combine performance, and went 28th overall to Toronto. He’s slotted in as the organization’s top-ranked prospect ever since and still holds the title over 2024 first-rounder Ben Danford, according to NHL.com. The 6’0″ center has enjoyed an offensive surge in juniors in the two years following his selection but also plays an intriguing physical brand.

While Cowan wasn’t technically on Toronto’s initial roster submission, he would have broken camp with the team if not for roster constraints. He was a late cut in each of the last two seasons after signing his entry-level contract back in August 2023 and had a good preseason showing for the Leafs, managing two assists in five games while generating seven individual scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick. He looked like a sure bet to open the season as Toronto’s fourth-line right wing alongside Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton, a spot where he spent virtually all of training camp, until Laughton was sidelined late in preseason with a lower-body injury and landed on IR to start the year.

Two years on from draft day, Cowan is still considered a top-100 prospect in the NHL – checking in as high as No. 48 league-wide in preseason rankings by Steven Ellis of Daily Faceoff. He’s been the offensive centerpiece of a dominant London Knights team in the OHL over the past two seasons, winning a pair of league championships. He’s led the OHL postseason in scoring in back-to-back years – same with the Memorial Cup – and has won MVP honors once in each tournament. Since draft day, Cowan has amassed 92 goals, 161 assists, 253 points, and a +105 rating in 144 regular-season, playoff, and Memorial Cup games – a rate of 1.76 points per game.

That resume, plus Cowan’s strong camp performance, was enough for the Leafs to risk exposing serviceable depth forwards David Kämpf and Michael Pezzetta to waivers in order to keep maneuverability open to get him a spot. After “making” the team, Cowan’s attention now turns toward staying in the lineup and putting himself ahead of names like Blais, Calle Järnkrok, and Nicholas Robertson on the depth chart.

His $873,500 cap hit is ever so slightly less than Quillan’s $875,000 cap hit, explaining why the latter was included to help them get as close as possible to unlocking the max $775,000 worth of initial relief that placing Rifai on LTIR provides (he had wrist surgery last month). While Quillan’s initial inclusion may have only been for cap purposes, it likely won’t be the last of him on Toronto’s roster this season. An undrafted free agent signed out of Quinnipiac in 2024, Quillan had 37 points in 67 AHL games last season and earned his first NHL call-up, although he was injured early and skated just 5:21 in a January game against the Senators.

Quillan is a pending restricted free agent and has two waiver-exempt seasons remaining, unless he hits 70 career NHL games before the end of the 2026-27 campaign. The 23-year-old will look toward next training camp as a chance to stick around as a depth checking forward.

Maple Leafs Claim Cayden Primeau, Sammy Blais Off Waivers

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have added a pair of depth options off the waiver wire. According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Maple Leafs have claimed netminder Cayden Primeau from the Carolina Hurricanes and forward Sammy Blais from the Montreal Canadiens.

Primeau’s tenure with the Hurricanes will end after having never appeared in a regular-season contest. Carolina acquired Primeau from the Canadiens this summer for a 2026 seventh-round pick. Despite signing him to a one-year, $775K contract a few days later, he’ll now play out that contract with Toronto.

After a promising 2023-24 campaign in which Primeau managed an 8-9-4 record in 24 games with a .910 SV%, he took a nosedive last year. Despite holding a 2-3-1 record in 11 games, he produced a disastrous .836 SV% and lost his job as the Canadiens’ backup to Jakub Dobes. Fortunately, Primeau revived some of his value with the AHL’s Laval Rocket, earning a 21-2-3 record in 26 games with a .927 SV%.

The Maple Leafs’ desire to add Primeau is fairly straightforward. The team will use Anthony Stolarz as the primary starter to begin the year, but has a question mark behind him with Joseph Woll taking an indefinite leave of absence. Dennis Hildeby has likely earned the role given his impressive preseason performance, and Primeau may start the year as their third-string option behind him, unless the team converts James Reimer’s PTO to a contract.

Meanwhile, Blais rejoins head coach Craig Berube in Toronto after winning a Stanley Cup ring with him in the 2019 playoffs. He’s a high-intensity forward and is coming off an impressive year with the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks, scoring 14 goals and 40 points in 51 games, with another six goals and 19 points in 23 games in the Calder Cup playoffs en route to another championship run.

Easton Cowan Considered NHL-Ready By Coach Berube

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  • Toronto Maple Leafs 2023 first-rounder Easton Cowan has been a hugely successful star player for the OHL’s London Knights, but hasn’t yet made his debut in professional hockey. That is about to change, and Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube indicated to the media (including The Hockey News’ David Alter) that Cowan’s debut could come in the NHL. Berube said that he believes Cowan is NHL-ready, and that his readiness has given the club “decisions to make” in terms of who to keep on its NHL roster. The Memorial Cup winner and 2-time OHL champion showed his pro-readiness in scoring 39 points in 17 postseason contests with the Knights last season.

Waivers: 10/3/25

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Twelve new names are on Friday’s waiver list, Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports relays. Out of the 22 names waived yesterday, three were claimed: Daemon Hunt heads from Columbus to Minnesota, Cole Schwindt from Vegas to Florida, and Ilya Solovyov from Calgary to Colorado.

Today’s placements are as follows:

Boston Bruins

F Patrick Brown
D Michael Callahan
F Georgii Merkulov
D Victor Söderström
F Riley Tufte

Carolina Hurricanes

F Givani Smith

Tampa Bay Lightning

G Brandon Halverson

Toronto Maple Leafs

F David Kämpf
D William Villeneuve

Utah Mammoth

G Matt Villalta

Vancouver Canucks

F Nils Åman

Washington Capitals

F Sheldon Rempal

Maple Leafs’ Scott Laughton Out Week-To-Week

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Maple Leafs center Scott Laughton is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, the club announced Friday. He was injured in last night’s exhibition loss to the Red Wings, Darren Dreger of TSN reports, although he didn’t appear to miss a shift. He’ll presumably start the season on standard or long-term injured reserve as a result.

Laughton, 31, is entering his first full season with the Maple Leafs, which acquired him from the Flyers at last season’s trade deadline. The pending unrestricted free agent had a spectacular preseason showing, notching a pair of goals and assists each for four points in three games. That’s a semi-promising sign after he didn’t factor in much offensively following his pickup last year. While Laughton has rattled off four straight 30-point seasons, he only had a 2-4–6 scoring line in 33 combined regular-season and playoff games for Toronto.

A decrease in production should have been expected with Laughton moving into a reduced role on a deeper Toronto offense, but that was a sharp dropoff from the 27 points he had in 60 games for the Flyers before the swap. Still, Laughton averaged around 13:30 per game to close out the year with Toronto, which would have been his lowest deployment in a full season since the 2017-18 campaign.

Laughton slotted in primarily as the Leafs’ fourth-line center after his acquisition and is widely projected to do so again this year, at least after he’s back in the lineup. He’s spent the vast majority of training camp between Steven Lorentz and 2023 first-round pick Easton Cowan, who looks primed to break camp for the first time and make his NHL debut on opening night. He’ll do so at a reasonable $1.5MM cap hit, reduced by Philly retaining the other half of his $3MM average annual value in last season’s trade.

While Laughton not taking up a roster spot on opening night makes life a little easier for the Maple Leafs as they look to clear their depth forward logjam, it doesn’t entirely remove the problem. David Kämpf, who routinely served as Toronto’s 4C before Laughton’s pickup, practiced in that spot today, per David Alter of The Hockey News, indicating his job is likely safe as long as Laughton’s out. They still have one forward cut to make to get down to 14, though, even with Laughton projected to land on IR. Not counting Kämpf, Calle Järnkrok, Michael Pezzetta, and Nicholas Robertson were the three forwards who didn’t play in the loss to Detroit that featured an opening-night preview. All are waiver-eligible, so barring a trade, one of them will land on the wire in the coming days.

Robertson, who’s on a one-year deal paying him $1.825MM and has averaged 19 goals and 32 points per 82 games over the last two seasons, carries the highest risk of a claim and will presumably remain with the club as a result. That leaves the veteran Järnkrok, who missed all but 19 games last year with multiple injuries and carries a cap hit of $2.1MM on an expiring deal, and the league-minimum enforcer Pezzetta. While the latter ultimately carries less utility, the former might have an easier time clearing thanks to his more consequential cap impact.

Simon Benoit Sheds Non-Contact Jersey

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  • The Toronto Maple Leafs got some positive news this morning regarding one of their injured defenseman. David Alter of The Hockey News reported that Simon Benoit has shed his non-contact jersey, indicating he’s nearly recovered from his upper-body injury. The heavy-hitting blue liner skated in 78 games for the Maple Leafs last season, scoring one goal and 10 points with 204 hits.

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Max Pacioretty Retires, Joins University Of Michigan’s Coaching Staff

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Tuesday: Pacioretty has indeed retired with the University of Michigan announcing that the long-time NHLer has been hired as a special assistant to head coach Brandon Naurato.  Pacioretty released the following statement:

After 17 seasons in the NHL, I’m excited to begin this next chapter with Michigan Hockey. I’m so thankful for the teammates, coaches and fans who have been a part of my journey. Hockey has given me so much, and now I have the opportunity to help develop the next generation of players. Michigan has a tradition of producing elite talent, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned to help these guys grow on and off the ice. Just as important, this next step allows me to be closer to my family and spend more time with my kids. I’m going to be coaching my four boys in youth hockey and that’s something I’ll really cherish as a dad.

Monday: One of the NHL’s better goal-scorers from the 2010s has reportedly hung up his skates. According to Nick Alberga of TheLeafsNation, instead of giving it one last shot in the NHL, veteran Max Pacioretty has chosen to hang up his skates and take a job at his alma mater, the University of Michigan.

Given that much of the conjecture surrounding Pacioretty this offseason was his desire to play close to Southeast Michigan, that effectively left his options down to the Columbus Blue Jackets, Detroit Red Wings, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Although reporting from earlier in the summer indicated the Red Wings as his preferred destination, the team seemingly filled the void on the opening day of free agency by signing James van Riemsdyk.

Still, the New Canaan, CT native will get his desired outcome, albeit in a different role. Alberga didn’t allude to the exact position Pacorietty is taking in Ann Arbor, though it’s a fair guess to assume it’s with their hockey program.

Despite failing to find another job in the NHL, there’s very little for Pacioretty to feel ashamed about in his 17-year career.

He was originally selected with the 22nd overall pick of the 2007 NHL Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. He immediately shifted to the University of Michigan after being drafted, scoring 15 goals and 39 points in 37 games during his freshman season. The Canadiens felt that one season of growth was enough in the NCAA and signed Pacioretty to his entry-level contract after his impressive one-and-done campaign.

In the first three years of his professional career, Pacioretty split his time between Montreal and its then-AHL affiliate, the Hamilton Bulldogs. From the beginning of the 2008-09 season to the end of the 2010-11 campaign, Pacioretty scored 20 goals and 49 points in 123 games with the Canadiens, and 25 goals and 72 points with the Bulldogs in 82 contests.

Since the beginning of the 2011-12 campaign, Pacioretty hadn’t looked back. He exploded offensively, scoring 33 goals and 65 points in 79 games, nearly tripling his production from one year prior. Rewarding his success, the Canadiens signed Pacioretty to a six-year, $27MM extension the following offseason.

Over the next six years, despite some injury concerns, Pacioretty became a consistent scoring winger in Montreal and was named the team’s captain ahead of the 2015-16 season. Throughout that stretch, he crossed the 60-point threshold four times, scoring 173 goals and 334 points in 424 games. Additionally, although the Canadiens managed only one quality postseason run with Pacioretty on the roster, he scored 10 goals and 19 points in 38 postseason games with Montreal, averaging 19:29 of ice time per game.

Unfortunately, he would not play out the rest of his extension with the only organization he had ever known. The Canadiens traded Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights on July 13th, 2022, for Nick Suzuki, Tomáš Tatar, and a 2019 second-round pick. He signed a four-year, $28MM contract with the Golden Knights one day later.

His first three years in Vegas were impressive, scoring 78 goals and 157 points in 185 games after the team’s Cinderella run to the Stanley Cup Final in their inaugural campaign. He continued his quality scoring in the postseason, registering 15 goals and 30 points in 36 postseason contests for the Golden Knights.

Again, due to growing injury concerns and the need for additional cap space, the Golden Knights traded Pacioretty for the second time in his career, this time to the Carolina Hurricanes, along with Dylan Coghlan, for future considerations. In one of those unfortunate cases from the 2021-22 season, Pacioretty only managed five games with the Hurricanes due to two torn Achilles tendons.

Working his way back the following offseason and through much of the 2022-23 campaign, Pacioretty signed a bonus-laden one-year contract with the Washington Capitals. After returning to game action in early January, Pacioretty finished the year with four goals and 23 points in 47 games, with an additional assist in four postseason contests.

In what would become the last contract of his career, Pacioretty signed another bonus-laden deal, this time with the Maple Leafs. He struggled with injuries throughout the year, managing only five goals and 13 points in 37 games. Still, he was one of Toronto’s better performers in the playoffs, scoring three goals and eight points in 11 games, including the game-winner that allowed the Maple Leafs to move to the second round.

Pacioretty finishes his career with 335 goals and 681 points in 939 games, averaging 17:16 of ice time per contest. All of us at PHR congratulate “Patches” on a successful career and wish him the best as he moves to his next role at the University of Michigan.

Photo courtesy of Jean-Yves Ahern-Imagn Images. 

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