- PuckPedia noted today that the Toronto Maple Leafs shifted injured netminder Joseph Woll from standard injured reserve to long-term injured reserve (LTIR). Puckpedia also noted that after their recall of defenseman Dakota Mermis today, the club has $3.63MM in cap space remaining with 23 healthy players on its roster. Woll took a personal leave of absence in September, and no further update on his status has been provided, nor has there been any further reporting on the matter. Today’s roster move does suggest the Maple Leafs could be without Woll for some time, though. The 27-year-old was expected to share a tandem with Anthony Stolarz this season after putting together a solid 2024-25, a year where he posted a .909 save percentage in 42 games. Woll’s absence prompted the club to claim Cayden Primeau off of waivers before the season, and Primeau has won his only start as a Maple Leaf thus far – a 7-4 victory on Oct. 14 in which Primeau saved 26 of 30 shots.
- Former Maple Leafs GM and Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee Brendan Shanahan has taken up a role with the NHL’s Hockey Operations department, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger. Dreger added that he “would expect Shanahan would be a leading candidate if a team makes a significant change and an opportunity presents to lead another NHL club.” There is a precedent for such a move – Ken Holland worked for the league office for a relatively brief period before his hire as GM of the Los Angeles Kings. This isn’t the first time Shanahan, who ran the Maple Leafs’ hockey operations department for 11 years, has worked for the league office: he previously served as head of the NHL’s Department of Player Safety from 2011-12 through 2013-14.
Maple Leafs Rumors
Maple Leafs Place Chris Tanev On Injured Reserve
The Maple Leafs announced they’ve placed right-shot defender Chris Tanev on injured reserve, retroactive to the club’s 5-2 loss to the Devils on Tuesday. Tanev is dealing with an upper-body injury and will be ineligible for the next three games at a minimum. Lefty Dakota Mermis was called up from the AHL to take Tanev’s spot on the active roster.
Tanev is no stranger to injuries, although he’s had a healthy run in the past few years, playing 70-plus games in three of the last four seasons. Today’s news doesn’t necessarily put that mark in jeopardy. Head coach Craig Berube only called Tanev questionable for Friday’s game against the Sabres when he spoke yesterday and said he was feeling better. While he obviously won’t be playing now, it indicates he’s not expected to miss much time past the seven-day minimum.
Tanev, 36 in December, only logged 5:57 of ice time against New Jersey before leaving the contest. Early in the second period, he was on the receiving end of incidental head-to-head contact with Devils forward Dawson Mercer during a net-front scrum and immediately headed to the locker room (video via TSN). Removing that outlier from the figure, Tanev is averaging around 19:40 of ice time per game – right at the mark he saw last year, his first in Toronto. The 16-year vet landed with the Leafs in free agency in 2024 on a six-year, $27MM pact and has been a top-four fixture ever since. He’s spent most of that time on a pairing with Jake McCabe. The duo is controlling 45.9% of expected goals through seven games, per MoneyPuck, yet they’re still outscoring opponents 3-2 at 5-on-5. That’s down sharply from their 55.1% mark last year, which ranked 14th among 41 pairings to log at least 600 minutes together in 2024-25.
On the scoresheet, the Toronto native had one assist, a plus-three rating, and two hits through seven outings. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who has been playing on his off side in third-pairing duties with Simon Benoit, will be the leading candidate to replace Tanev in top-four duties alongside McCabe for the next few games.
It’s unclear if Mermis will get a shot in the lineup. Toronto has been carrying righty Philippe Myers as a healthy extra since the start of the season, but he hasn’t played. Losing a righty to injury would seemingly give the edge to Myers to make his season debut in Buffalo tomorrow.
Mermis, 31, comes up after clearing waivers late in training camp. He re-upped with the Leafs this summer on a two-year, league minimum contract after initially signing a one-year deal with Toronto in 2024. He spent a brief chunk of last season in Utah after they claimed him off waivers, but Toronto grabbed him back when he was exposed on the wire again. He got into four NHL showings, three of which were with the Leafs, with one assist and a minus-two rating. He has 78 career games since debuting with the Coyotes back in 2017-18, carrying a 4-9–13 scoring line with a plus-three rating while averaging 14:30 per game.
Mermis can remain on Toronto’s active roster for up to 30 nonconsecutive days or play 10 games until he needs to clear waivers again to return to the AHL. He’s without a point in two minor-league games to begin the season but has a plus-two rating.
Scott Laughton To Resume Skating
There’s no question the Toronto Maple Leafs have struggled out of the gates to begin the 2025-26 campaign. Fortunately, they could get a boost to the bottom-six of their forward core relatively soon in the form of Scott Laughton.
However, Laughton’s return is unlikely to resolve the issues plaguing the Maple Leafs this season. The team’s power play is currently tied for 28th in the league with a 12.5% success rate, and the team is middle-of-the-pack in puck possession. Being that he’s a physical center who can win faceoffs and chip in for 30-40 points a year, it would be unrealistic to think Laughton is the only thing Toronto needs to get their season back on track.
- Moving back to Toronto, the team could be without defenseman Chris Tanev for their upcoming matchup against the Sabres. After leaving their most recent game with an upper-body injury, TSN’s Mark Masters reported yesterday that Tanev remains questionable to return. Given that the Maple Leafs are financially limited in what they’re able to do, the expectation is that Philippe Myers will make his season debut if Tanev is unable to play on Friday.
McCue Commits To Bowling Green
- Maple Leafs prospect Sam McCue announced on his Instagram account earlier this week that he has committed to Bowling Green State University. The 20-year-old was a seventh-round pick by Toronto back in 2024 and is off to a strong start in his final season of major junior, putting up four goals and two assists in eight games with OHL Brampton.
Maple Leafs Debuting Easton Cowan In Top-Line Role
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
- 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.
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Leafs Hire Mark Giordano, Three Others To Hockey Operations Roles
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
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
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
- 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.