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Nick Ritchie Clears Waivers

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Jan 7: Ritchie has cleared waivers according to TSN’s Chris Johnston. With Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall entering the COVID protocol, the forward will likely remain on the active roster for the time being.

Jan 6: According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Toronto Maple Leafs placed forward Nick Ritchie on waivers today.

Many of Toronto’s offseason gambles have worked out perfectly for them, but that hasn’t been the case with Ritchie. He has just a goal and seven assists through 30 games.

After starting the season with the chance to shine alongside Auston Matthews, he floundered in that role and was soon demoted to the fourth line. He was far more effective there playing with veterans Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds, but with Ilya Mikheyev returning to the lineup and the Leafs now with a fully healthy roster, the team needed space and cap relief.

Ritchie and his $2.5MM cap hit was the odd man out. He’s signed through 2022-23 as well, so it’s extremely unlikely another team stakes a claim on the 26-year-old forward.

Mitch Marner, Pierre Engvall Enter COVID Protocol

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After avoiding a scare with Auston Matthews recently, the Toronto Maple Leafs have placed Mitch Marner and Pierre Engvall in the COVID protocol today. Both players took part in the team’s most recent game, but will now miss tomorrow’s match against the Colorado Avalanche. Joey Anderson and Brett Seney have been recalled from the AHL to the taxi squad.

With the new absences, Nick Ritchie–who is currently on waivers–and Kyle Clifford, are practicing with the main group according to David Alter of The Hockey News.

Marner and Engvall were two of the few players who didn’t end up in the protocol last month when the Maple Leafs ended up postponing several games. They will now face at least a five-day absence if they tested positive, meaning not only is the Colorado game in danger, but also matches against the Vegas Golden Knights and Arizona Coyotes next week.

While Engvall is a regular, it’s Marner’s absence that will obviously be much more dramatic. The 24-year-old plays more than any other Toronto forward, averaging nearly 21 minutes a night through his 26 games this season. In those games, he has just six goals and 21 points, a significant departure from the player that has scored 228 points in 196 games over the last three seasons.

NHL Postpones Three Games Due To Capacity Restrictions

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The NHL announced Wednesday that they’ve postponed three games due to current capacity restrictions in Canada. The following games were postponed:

New Jersey Devils vs. Montreal Canadiens (originally scheduled for January 15)
New Jersey Devils vs. Toronto Maple Leafs (originally scheduled for January 17)
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Edmonton Oilers (originally scheduled for January 18)

The postponements leave a sizable gap in the schedule in terms of home games for all three Canadian teams affected. Montreal’s next home game is now scheduled for January 27 against Anaheim. They have seven road games scheduled prior to that point.

Toronto is actually playing host to the Oilers tonight, but it’ll be their last time hosting for a few weeks now. Their next home game is also against Anaheim on January 26, the day prior to Montreal’s game. Edmonton has a home game scheduled for January 10 against the Ottawa Senators, seemingly left unaffected as it’s two Canadian teams facing off against each other.

Matthews Tests Negative, Could Still Play Tomorrow

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  • Auston Matthews’ positive COVID result from a rapid test yesterday was not confirmed today, as his PCR result returned negative. While he was still held out from practice, there is still a chance he avoids the protocol and can play for the team tomorrow night. Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporters including Luke Fox of Sportsnet that they are awaiting the results of another test that should be known tomorrow morning.

Topi Niemela Signs One-Year Extension In Finland

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  • While it was a disappointing day for players at the World Juniors following their cancellation yesterday, there was a silver lining for Finnish defenseman Topi Niemela. Karpat of the SM-liiga announced that the Maple Leafs prospect has signed a one-year extension through the end of next season, meaning his arrival in North America will have to wait.  The 2020 third-rounder (64th overall) leads all Liiga blueliners in scoring with 24 points in 31 games this season.

Attendance Restrictions Raise Questions About Canadian Home Dates

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In many Canadian cities–Montreal and Winnipeg most notably–several games have already been postponed through January in the hope that they will be able to be held with full attendance later in the season. On Tuesday, the league announced nine games, including four in Montreal, that would be rescheduled for later in the year.

Now, as restrictions are tightened in British Columbia and Ontario, there are further questions around home dates for the Vancouver Canucks, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Ottawa Senators.

Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet tweets that Canucks home dates on January 5 and 8 could be postponed until the capacity increases. Those are games against the New York Islanders and Ottawa Senators, respectively, once the Canuck return from their current road trip. Earlier this month, the BC government announced restrictions that would cap attendance at 50% for events of more than 1,000 people.

The Ontario government has gone even further, limiting attendance to just 1,000 people for large sporting events starting Friday. The Maple Leafs and Senators–as well as many OHL arenas–will obviously be hugely affected by that change, limiting their ability to drive revenue from ticket sales and concessions, revenue that is important to the league’s projections.

The Maple Leafs had their January 3 game against the Carolina Hurricanes postponed already, but were supposed to play against the Senators Saturday night in Toronto. They also have a home date against the Edmonton Oilers on January 5 before a four-game road trip.

Ottawa meanwhile is scheduled to host the Minnesota Wild on January 3, before a five-game road trip. It is not clear yet if the league will postpone these games, but recent actions suggest it is a possibility.

Notably, the Ontario government also has changed its isolation guidelines to recommend just five days (down from 10) for vaccinated individuals who are asymptomatic or have had their symptoms resolve. That would mean the NHL’s new guidelines would now apply to Maple Leafs and Senators players, allowing some earlier exits from the COVID protocol (provided they test negative).

Bayreuther, Liljegren Placed In COVID Protocol

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The Columbus Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs will be missing a pair of depth defenders for the next little while, as Gavin Bayreuther and Timothy Liljegren have been placed in the COVID protocols. For both teams this is something of a setback, given they’ve activated several players over the last few days and are preparing to resume their seasons in the coming days.

Bayreuther, 27, joins Oliver Bjorkstrand, Eric Robinson, and Joonas Korpisalo in the protocol for Columbus as the Blue Jackets get ready to take on the Nashville Predators tomorrow night. The veteran minor league defenseman has played 17 games this season, nearly matching his previous career total with five assists. Even though he’s been in the lineup, he’s not playing much, averaging just over 14 minutes a night on the year and just 12 in his last five matches.

Liljegren meanwhile joins William Nylander, Ilya Mikheyev, David Kampf, Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, and Petr Mrazek in the protocol for the Maple Leafs, a team that saw almost the entire roster go on over the holidays. Toronto hasn’t played a single game since December 14 and won’t hit the ice until Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

The 22-year-old Liljegren has played in 19 games for the team this season, even logging more than 21 minutes in the team’s last game. A first-round pick in 2017, he’s barely played in the NHL to this point, totaling just 32 contests over parts of three years.

Notably, Liljegren and Bayreuther could now be facing different protocol rules after the NHL slightly changed their isolation periods for U.S.-based teams. Neither player has been listed as a confirmed positive by his team and no details on symptoms have been revealed.

NHL Announces More Postponements

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The NHL has officially announced the temporary formation of taxi squads and three additional postponements. The following games will be rescheduled for later in the season:

  • Columbus Blue Jackets at Chicago Blackhawks, December 28
  • Pittsburgh Penguins at Toronto Maple Leafs, December 29
  • Boston Bruins at Ottawa Senators, December 29

The other games scheduled for Tuesday are set to play as originally planned, though there will be continued testing that could change that. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff writes that more players are expected to be placed in the COVID protocol tomorrow when test results have been confirmed.

In addition to the postponements, the league has officially revealed the new taxi squad rules. As previously reported, they will be in place from today through each team’s final game prior to the All-Star Break. It will have a maximum of six players at any time, will be subject to normal waiver requirements and no player may spend more than 20 cumulative days on the taxi squad.

There have also been temporary modifications to the CBA, allowing some salary cap relief for clubs dealing with COVID absences. Roster Emergency Exception recalls are now allowed to be players with a cap hit of up to $1MM (previously it had been limited at $850K). Teams can now recall a goaltender under emergency conditions–i.e. if they have fewer than two goaltenders on the active roster–without playing a game short. That means we won’t continue to see EBUGs pop up around the league (or at least not as often).

The full changes can be found here.

Mitch Marner Returns To Practice

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  • Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner returned to practice today for the first time since suffering an upper-body injury earlier this month, relays David Alter of The Hockey News (Twitter link). Worth noting is that while Marner is currently on LTIR (which has allowed Toronto to stay cap-compliant among other players being brought up) is that postponed games count towards the 10 games a player must miss while on there so Toronto’s postponements won’t automatically delay Marner’s return.

Maple Leafs Place Jake Muzzin In COVID Protocol

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NHL players haven’t been tested for COVID by their teams since they left for their holiday break but a handful of players still entered COVID protocol in recent days.  Teams are set to return for testing at 2 PM local time today with practices to follow soon after but before even getting to that point, the Maple Leafs announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Jake Muzzin has been placed in protocol.

The 32-year-old has had a quiet year by his standards offensively, notching just one goal and eight assists in 30 games.  However, he’s second on the team in ice time per game at 21:24 per game; only fellow blueliner Morgan Rielly plays more and he just recently entered protocol as well.

In fact, Toronto is now up to 14 players that are currently ineligible to play with Muzzin out for at least the next 10 days.  Some of the earlier placements will soon be able to return but after quarantining for that long, they will need a few days to get their conditioning back to game readiness.  Accordingly, while the Maple Leafs are next set to play against Pittsburgh on Wednesday, it’s hard to envision that game going forward.  More updates for the schedule across the league are expected later today.

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