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Maple Leafs Recall Kyle Clifford

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While there is some risk with only carrying six defensemen on a long road trip, that’s what the Maple Leafs have decided to do as they announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Kyle Clifford from AHL Toronto and he will be in the lineup tonight against Winnipeg.  To make room for him on the active roster, blueliner Filip Kral has been sent back to the Marlies.

Clifford is in his second stint with the Maple Leafs after being acquired from St. Louis last season.  He signed a two-year, one-way deal worth the NHL minimum in both seasons but cleared waivers at the beginning of training camp and has played in two AHL contests so far this season.  His addition to the active roster gives Toronto 15 forwards up with the big club.

As for Kral, his NHL debut will have to wait a little longer.  He was recalled back on Wednesday to serve as the extra defenseman following Jake Muzzin’s injury but didn’t see any game action.  The 23-year-old had 18 points in 51 games with the Marlies last season.

Toronto begins a five-game Western road trip tonight with Muzzin, Timothy Liljegren, and Jordie Benn all on the injured list (the latter two on LTIR).  With teams generally wanting to have some positional insurance when playing on the opposite coast, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Kral or another defender brought back up within the next game or two.

Could This Be The Right Time For Toronto To Trade Nick Robertson?

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The injury to Matt Murray provided the Maple Leafs with enough cap space to recall winger Nick Robertson and he made an immediate impact, scoring twice in Toronto’s overtime win against Dallas on Thursday.  On the surface, it would seem like this is at least a short-term opportunity for him to prove himself but Postmedia’s Michael Traikos posits that there hasn’t been a better time for them to trade the 21-year-old.  The Maple Leafs don’t have the deepest of prospect pools but Robertson is someone who is NHL-ready or very close which would be appealing to many rebuilding teams.  With the team in need of some help on the back end, a player like Robertson is someone they could potentially dangle to try to add that defensive help.

Nick Roberston To Make Season Debut

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  • The offseason experiment of Denis Malgin on the Toronto Maple Leafs’ second line is coming to an end, at least for tonight. According to Jonas Siegel of The Athletic, the team will move top prospect Nick Robertson into the lineup to play beside John Tavares and William Nylander, an especially exciting opportunity for the young forward because of the opponent. Robertson’s brother Jason Robertson is in town with the Dallas Stars, making the second time the siblings will face off in the NHL. Despite starting games with the top-six unit, Malgin has averaged just 11:18 through his first four appearances with the Maple Leafs, seeing fewer than nine minutes in a recent loss against the Arizona Coyotes.

Toronto Marlies Sign Danny DeKeyser To PTO

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With the Toronto Maple Leafs struggling to start the year and Jake Muzzin already out due to injury, the team’s defensive depth is being tested. Today, the organization has brought in a veteran name to see if he has any game left. Danny DeKeyser has signed a professional tryout agreement with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, giving him another chance to show what he can do.

DeKeyser was on a PTO with the Vancouver Canucks earlier this summer but failed to earn a contract at the end of camp. This deal with a minor league club likely isn’t what he was hoping for, though if there is an AHL club to go to, the Marlies would be near the top of the list. The Maple Leafs organization is more than willing to pay their minor leaguers handsomely, as you can see by the one-way deals that Kyle Clifford, Joey Anderson, Adam Gaudette, and the recently recalled Victor Mete and Wayne Simmonds are on this year.

If DeKeyser can show he still has some juice, an NHL deal would allow him to serve as extra depth in Toronto, something the team could quickly need. Muzzin is out indefinitely with a neck injury, Timothy Liljegren is still working his way back, Jordie Benn has only recently gotten back on the ice, and Carl Dahlstrom is probably going to miss the whole season. Not to mention Toronto has already lost to the teams that finished 32nd and 31st (Montreal and Arizona) last season.

It’s time to throw spaghetti against the wall and see if it sticks, meaning the 32-year-old should get a look. DeKeyser has played 547 regular season games in the league, though it has been years since he was the effective two-way force he entered as. Last season with the Detroit Red Wings (the only team he has ever played for), he registered 11 points in 59 games.

Vancouver Canucks Activate Ilya Mikheyev, Tyler Myers; Reassign Noah Juulsen

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Today, Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced that the team had activated F Ilya Mikheyev and D Tyler Myers from injured reserve, sending down D Noah Juulsen to the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks in a corresponding transaction.

Mikheyev and Myers began the regular season on injured reserve and have yet to suit up. Mikheyev has been absent from the Canucks’ lineup since suffering a lower-body injury in a preseason game on September 25 against the Calgary Flames, missing approximately three weeks. Myers’ return to the lineup comes well ahead of expectation, as he was expected to miss three weeks of action starting from October 6.

Both players could be in line to make their season debuts tonight in Columbus. The Canucks are in the second half of a back-to-back set and have lost their first three games. They set an NHL record last night in Washington by becoming the first team to blow multi-goal leads in three consecutive games to begin a season.

Mikheyev, who arrived this offseason as a free agent from the Toronto Maple Leafs, is expected to make his Canucks debut at right wing alongside Elias Pettersson and Andrei Kuzmenko. Pettersson leads the Canucks with four points through his first three games. Myers is expected to play on a pairing with Riley Stillman, who was acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks just prior to the season in exchange for Jason Dickinson.

Juulsen, 25, logged nearly 11 minutes in his season debut yesterday against Washington and recorded a shot on goal. While waiver-eligible, Juulsen cleared waivers less than 30 days ago and therefore can currently be shuttled down at will by the Canucks until November 4.

Jake Muzzin Leaves Game With Neck Injury

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Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jake Muzzin left the game earlier this evening with a neck injury and will not return, the team announced. The injury appeared to occur after Muzzin and Arizona Coyotes forward Clayton Keller came together in an awkward collision in the corner, Muzzin tumbling to the ice, leaving gingerly. It’s unclear how severe the injury is and whether or not Muzzin will miss any additional time after tonight.

Being without the veteran defenseman would be another tough injury break for the Maple Leafs, who already lost goaltender Matt Murray to an abdominal injury this weekend. The silver lining with Murray hitting LTIR was that it allowed the cap-tight Maple Leafs to recall three players, including defenseman Victor Mete. If Muzzin were to miss time, but not enough to warrant a trip to LTIR, Toronto still has just south of $1.6MM in LTIR to utilize, meaning they could recall another player.

Toronto Maple Leafs Recall Three Players

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have announced the recalls of three skaters this morning, calling up forwards Nicholas Robertson and Wayne Simmonds, as well as defenseman Victor Mete. These moves come after starting netminder Matt Murray was placed on long-term injured reserve yesterday, a move that gave a cap-strapped Maple Leafs team some more breathing room under the salary cap.

Toronto had been operating with a roster holding the bare-minimum eighteen skaters and two goalies. Now, with this move, the team is utilizing all 23 of its allocated roster spots thanks to the additional room Murray’s LTIR placement provided.

With these recalls, Robertson and Simmonds are likely to start off as Toronto’s 13th and 14th forwards. In those roles, Robertson would likely fill in for any absences on the Maple Leafs’ scoring lines, while Simmonds would fill in for any absences in the team’s bottom six.

We covered earlier this month how the Maple Leafs were shopping Simmonds, a 1019-game veteran, but perhaps now that Simmonds has a place on Toronto’s NHL roster there won’t be the same sort of push to find a deal for him.

As for Mete, he was called up to in all likelihood serve as the team’s seventh defenseman. That’s a role that the 24-year-old should be able to handle capably, as he has had a place in NHL lineups since making his debut with the Montreal Canadiens in 2017-18.

The Maple Leafs are 2-1-0 and widely expected to be among the league’s best teams, although there has been concern about how well the team’s depth would hold up against the rigors of the NHL regular season. Now, we will see the organization’s depth face its first real test as these three players assume their roles as spare skaters in Toronto.

Toronto Maple Leafs Place Matt Murray On LTIR, Erik Kallgren Recalled

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5:07 pm: The Maple Leafs have officially announced the transaction, also confirming that Murray is set to miss at least four weeks with an adductor injury.

4:41 pm: As reported by TSN’s Chris Johnston, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled goalie Erik Kallgren from the AHL. PuckPedia notes that this move implies that Matt Murray has been moved to long-term injured reserve after suffering an apparent groin injury in practice this morning.

If Murray was not injured enough to go on long-term injured reserve, the Maple Leafs would have had to utilize an emergency backup for tonight’s game against the Ottawa Senators. The team remains tight to the salary cap and wouldn’t have had enough salary cap space to recall Kallgren without the additional LTIR relief from Murray’s $4.688MM cap hit.

Kallgren’s availability was also a point of uncertainty throughout the day for the Maple Leafs. The Swedish netminder, who had his 26th birthday yesterday, left the Toronto Marlies’ season opener against the Rochester Americans after a collision with Rochester Americans defenseman Ethan Prow. As Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier today, though, Kallgren was cleared of any injury on the play.

Toronto will now rely heavily on Ilya Samsonov to begin the season, who made 24 saves on 26 shots in his Maple Leafs debut on Thursday against the Washington Capitals. Kallgren will likely be used sparingly as a backup, having amassed an 8-4-1 record but a poor .888 save percentage last season in Toronto.

The soonest Murray will be eligible to return to the lineup is November 8.

Maple Leafs Notes: Bunting, Goalies, Simmonds

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In the 2021 offseason, Michael Bunting had strong interest but at a limited price tag having only had less than a half-season of NHL playing time under his belt.  He signed a two-year deal with Toronto, one that has already become one of the top bargains in the league at a cost of $950K per season.  The 27-year-old is a year away from testing the market again where his market will be much stronger.  That said, he told reporters including Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun, that his preference is to remain with the Maple Leafs:

I’m a Toronto boy, I love playing for the Maple Leafs. This is my home. It’s so much fun putting on that sweater every single night and that’s what I will say about it.

Bunting finished third in Calder Trophy voting last season after putting up 20 goals and 43 assists in 79 games.  A similar showing this year on Toronto’s top line could put him in a position to command $5MM or more in free agency next summer which could make it tricky for the Maple Leafs to keep him around in that situation.

More from Toronto:

  • Goaltender Matt Murray is the scheduled starter tonight against his former team in Ottawa but Sports Illustrated’s David Alter reports (Twitter link) that Murray left the game-day skate early with a groin issue. Ilya Samsonov would get the nod if Murray can’t suit up for this game.  However, who would back him up would be in question as Erik Kallgren was injured in the AHL last night while Joseph Woll is still working his way back from injury as well.  Their only other NHL-contracted goaltender (Dennis Hildeby) is in Sweden so he’s off the table for tonight.  That means that if Murray can’t dress (and that hasn’t been ruled out just yet), they’ll either have to convert one of their AHL-contracted goalies (Keith Petruzzelli, Dryden McKay, or Dylan Ferguson) to an NHL deal and use a cap-exempt goalie recall (teams get two of those a season) or use an emergency backup (EBUG).  However, an NHL conversion would be tricky with the team at the 50-contract limit.
  • While the team sent winger Wayne Simmonds to the minors earlier this week, Mark Zwolinski of the Toronto Star notes that the veteran is not on Toronto’s AHL roster at this time. He’s currently skating with the injured Maple Leafs in the hopes of getting some clarity on what’s next for him.  In the short-term future, it doesn’t appear that seeing action with Marlies is in the plans.

Toronto Maple Leafs Sign Fraser Minten

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While the Toronto Maple Leafs organization is undoubtedly now devoting its full focus to the 2022-23 NHL season, that hasn’t stopped them from looking ahead to their future. Today, the Maple Leafs announced that they’ve signed prospect forward Fraser Minten to a three-year entry-level deal. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Minten, 18, was the Maple Leafs’ top draft pick at the 2022 draft in Montreal, getting selected 38th overall after Toronto traded out of the first round as part of the Petr Mrazek trade with the Chicago Blackhawks.

Minten is a WHL product who spent his draft season with the Kamloops Blazers. On a strong Blazers team, Minten scored 55 points in 67 regular-season games and added 16 points in 17 playoff games. Minten brings solid size and strength to the center position, and has drawn praise for his shooting ability.

Since Minten will play 2022-23 with the Blazers, the Maple Leafs’ choice to sign him to this entry-level deal isn’t motivated by any desire to improve their roster in the short or medium term. Instead, signing Minten to this deal gives GM Kyle Dubas and the Maple Leafs organization a chance to demonstrate their commitment to Minten’s development and reward him for his performances in rookie camp and the preseason.

With this deal in hand, Minten will head back to the Blazers once he recovers from an injury he suffered during training camp. In Kamloops, Minten will in all likelihood be asked to shoulder an even greater role as the Blazers look to build towards another deep run in the WHL playoffs.

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