#wayne-simmonds

#wayne-simmonds

After practice on Thursday, head coach Sheldon Keefe discussed the high minute totals for Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner of late, Luke Schenn making his home debut 2.0 against Carolina tomorrow night, and Conor Timmins' development plan as the ninth defenseman on the roster.Practice Lines - March 16

#Leafs lines during practice Mar.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL's best team.Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs are in 4th place overall, but if you put the standings in context, it's pretty easy to see who the favorite to win the 2023 Stanley Cup is at the moment.The Bruins, New Jersey and Las Vegas are predictably good, but the Leafs have only lost once in the last month, and are doing so as the NHL's most injured team.

The Leafs are back, baby.Or the Leafs have won three in a row.Pessimistic or optimist, a dominant win over the Flyers, and tight victories over the Bruins and Canes in back-to-backs while losing their starting goaltender is damned impressive and largely masks the stank of the western road trip.Still, the Leafs are never as bad as the worst hockey they are playing, but never as good as the best hockey they play either.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will travel to Ottawa for a Saturday night game against the Senators which will be their third contest this season against their divisional rivals.The game will be the first of five consecutive games on the road that will also take the Toronto Maple Leafs through Long Island, Florida, Carolina and Nashville.

After a brief hiatus (my Christmas vacation) the weekly rumours column returns to TLN.And much like how it has always been when it comes to the Leafs it's not so much Toronto specific rumours given the tight-lipped nature of Kyle Dubas, but instead, it is who is rumoured to be available around the league mixed in with some "informed" speculation from insiders.

The Leafs have kept Denis Malgin out of the lineup for the past three games.This is somewhat of an interesting development given that Calle Jarnkrok has been out of the lineup and the path back into the Leafs lineup should have been an easy one for Malgin.Instead, the Leafs have opted to bring in Wayne Simmonds or to give Semyon Der-Arguchintsev his NHL debut, while continuing to try Nick Robertson as much as possible as well.

You never want to see injuries to anyone, especially a player who finally seemed to find the best linemate fit in his two months with the team, but here the Leafs are, adding Calle Jarnkrok to the growing number of the Leafs on their IR/LTIR.Maple Leafs forward Calle Järnkrok will not return to tonight's game (groin).

Whenever someone is put on waivers, the default answer to do you claim them should be no.This year the quality of players on waivers really has hammered that point home, and when you consider that as of this morning the Leafs cannot claim Stralman due to being at 50 standard player contracts already really makes the decision for the Leafs.

Toronto Maple Leafs @ Ottawa Senators07:00 PM at Canadian Tire CentreWatch on: CBC, SNO, SNW, SNP
The Leafs last game was at home on March 17 against the Carolina Hurricanes, which Toronto won by a score of 5-2.The Leafs have a record of 41-18-9 so far.The Ottawa Senators last played at home on March 16 against the Colorado Avalanche.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are the deepest team in the NHL.It is indisputable.The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the NH L in players taken off waivers over the last several seasons, while they have better players in the AHL than most other teams have on their 4th lines.Look at their forwards: Jarnkork is on the 2nd line, and Kerfoot-Kampf-Engvall are some of the best non-star players alive in the world.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have acquired Ryan O'Reilly from the St. Louis Blues, along with Noel Acciari, in exchange for their first round pick in 2023, second round pick in 2024, third round pick in 2023 (Ottawa's), prospect Mikhail Abramov, and free agent signee Adam Gaudette.The Minnesota Wild also receive the Leafs fourth round pick in 2025 for retaining salary on O'Reilly.

The Toronto Maple Leafs (28-11-8) face off against the New York Islanders (23-20-5) tonight at the Scotiabank Arena, in Toronto.The last time these two teams met was the 21st of November, a game the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 2-3 in overtime.The Leafs are 5-3-2 their last ten games and currently sit in second place in the Atlantic, tied with New Jersey for third overall in the league, with 64 points.

Colorado Avalanche @ Toronto Maple Leafs07:00 PM at Scotiabank ArenaWatch on: TNT, TVAS, SN, SN1
The Leafs last game was at home on March 13 against the Buffalo Sabres, which Toronto lost by a score of 4-3.The Leafs have a record of 40-18-8 so far.The Colorado Avalanche last played an away game on March 13 against the Montréal Canadiens.

The Toronto Maple Leafs trade with St. Louis has worked out pretty good so far despite an injury to Ryan O'Rielly.The Toronto Maple Leafs got Ryan O'Reilly at such a discount that the trade is basically no-risk, but in addition to O'Reilly being good so far (when he's played) Noel Acciari has been excellent
The same cannot be said about the trade with the Blackhawks.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to look a little different next year with a few individuals currently fighting to keep their jobs.It's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs roster is going to turnover next year.Over the past few seasons, that's pretty normal for the franchise, as the core has stayed put with the bottom-six and goaltenders changing on a frequent basis.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will return from their All-Star and Bye Week break tomorrow when they play a home-in-home back-to-back with the Columbus Blue Jackets.Before the break, they sent Holmberg and Woll to the Marlies so they could play down the road while the rest of the team got a vacation.With the team back in operation today, they recalled the two, along with Alex Steeves for the first time this season.

So... John Tory resigned after a sex scandal was revealed to have been going on until the beginning of this year.As the most important city in Canada reels with elections surely on the horizon, one must ask... who's going to run?The obvious answer is that John Tavares decides to take on the mantel a decade or two early for the sake of the city.

Update:

Simmonds clears.No one new on waivers- Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC)
February 15, 2023
He's exempt for 29 days on the NHL roster.Simmonds (TOR) on waivers.I believe this is a paper transaction- Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC)
February 14, 2023
Okay, but there's no such thing.Not really.

After practice on Friday, head coach Sheldon Keefe discussed his new line combinations in practice coming off of the loss in San Jose, Justin Holl's bumpy ride to start the season, and the decision to insert defenseman Filip Král for his NHL debut on Saturday night in LA.Practice Lines - October 28

Leafs D at practice
Rielly - Brodie Sandin - Holl Giordano - Kral*/Mete
*Kral taking first reps ... has yet to play in NHL @TSN_Edge
- Mark Masters (@markhmasters) October 28, 2022

You mentioned the other day Ilya Samsonov is a little under the weather.

This is a fairly simple method of measuring the additions and subtractions.I'm going to use the percentile rank that aggregates the various measures from Evolving Hockey on their Player Cards, set to just this season.In
Ryan O'Reilly
EH Rank: 62 - mostly offensive
Ice time: first line
Points: 15 G - 9 A - 24 P - 45 GP
Jake McCabe
EH Rank: 83 - balanced between offence and defence
Ice time: first pair
Points: 2 G - 18 A - 20 P - 55 GP
Erik Gustafsson
EH Rank: 92 - good on defence, heavenly on offence
Ice time: first - second pair
Points: 7 G - 31 A - 38 P - 61 GP
Noel Acciari
EH Rank: 60 - all defence
Ice time: second to fourth line
Points: 11 G - 8 A - 19 P - 59 GP
Sam Lafferty
EH Rank: 38 - all defence
Ice time: second to fourth line
Points: 10 G - 11 A - 21 P - 51 GP
Luke Schenn
EH Rank: 58 - all offence, defence is essentially zero
Ice time: second to first pair
Points: 3 G - 18 A - 21 P - 55 GP
Caveats
Most of these players were used in much bigger roles on their original teams.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made another trade.Adding to the six players he has already added, Toronto general manager Kyle Dubas traded Dryden Hunt to the Calgary Flames for Radim Zohorna.The Toronto Maple Leafs are all in for the NHL playoffs this season.Dubas has done everything he can to make this team as playoff ready as possible.

Now that the trade deadline has passed, there are a new set of rules in play for player movement in the NHL.Most of this is covered on Cap Friendly in their CBA section, but with some Leafs-specific context, here are the rules:
Roster Limits
The 23-man limit is gone, but the salary cap isn't.Teams can have any number of players on the roster who will fit under the cap.

The Leafs dropped their second straight game in an electric battle between two of the top teams in the league.Boston took this one 4-3 ending a four game losing streak against Toronto.Below are the highlights of the game...
Matt Murray got started early stretching out to rob Brad Marchand with a beautiful glove save...
Wayne Simmonds and Nick Foligno dropped the gloves and squared off in a spirited tilt at center ice...
Shortly after the fight Charlie McAvoy went to the box for tripping and the Leafs capitalized.

The Toronto Maple Leafs should address their need for forward depth at the NHL trade deadline on March 3rd.They will need it for the playoffs and next season.According to capfriendly.com, the Toronto Maple Leafs have seven pending UFA forwards out of the 13 on their active roster.Kyle Dubas could address the team's need for forward depth next season by acquiring a forward with term instead of a rental for this year's playoffs.

Following his stellar relief effort in Tuesday night's 5-4 OT victory against the Florida Panthers, Ilya Samsonov will get the call tonight as the Leafs (27-11-7) host the Winnipeg Jets (29-15-1).Down 4-1 early in the second period after Matt Murray allowed four goals on eight shots, the 25-year-old Russian netminder was thrusted into action by Sheldon Keefe.

What can you do but laugh when you go 0-3-1 against the Arizona Coyotes in 2022?The Leafs have only lost 32 games in the past year (oddly enough, that's how many games the Coyotes have won).And it should feel wrong in some way that an eighth of their losses have come against such a bad team, but the simple fact is that the Leafs play down to their opponents in trap games.

Devante Smith-Pelly, a monumentally crucial part of the Washington Capitals' 2018 run to the franchise's first Stanley Cup, announced his retirement from professional hockey after an 11-year career.DSP revealed the news via his personal Instagram on Friday.DSP made a special note of his time with the Caps, mentioning that he will be forever connected to his teammates, Caps fans, and the city of Washington, DC.

The gift giving of the holiday season is winding down.If one of the presents you received for Hanukkah, Omisoka, Kwanzaa, or Christmas is a new addition to the family in the form of a furry or even scaled friend, then keep reading.There's a lot of work ahead.Besides feeding and walking your new pet, the most difficult task will be to name it.

Everything is bigger in Texas and I guess that includes the news that comes out of Leafs practice.There are definitely a couple of important things to note from the skate today, so we'll dive right into those.TJ Brodie is on the ice for practice.Looks like he'll take part in his first practice with the team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, for the first time this season, went up against a weak team and defeated them.A lot of times this can leads to sustained pressure, momentum swings and a Leafs team that is barely hanging on for the victory.Teams who are down two goals tend to get more shots-attempts and shots, as the winning team stops taking risks to create offense.

It's HNIC! Let's douse the Flames.The big news is they've figured out Milan Lucic isn't very good.Meanwhile in Toronto, Joey Anderson is getting a chance.First Period
Gotta love a one-anthem game.Still starts 15 minutes late.One minute in and I've heard Denis Malgin's name three times.He wants to keep this gig.

My apologies to anyone who has been paying attention over the past few weeks and has noticed that I tend to run the Rumours posts on Thursdays.Your commitment to TLN content is admirable, and I'm sorry for letting you down.To the rest of you who are just gleefully clicking on any fresh Leafs content, ignore all of that.

RIP, Börje.You are a legend and we love you."I'll never forget our game in Toronto.The fans gave me a standing ovation during the introductions.I was representing my country and Canadian fans gave me a standing ovation.Sometimes hockey has no country."- Börje Salming

Sept. 7, 1976.

To celebrate defeating the unbeatable Devils, the Leafs are actively choosing to go into Minnesota with a less offensive driven lineup than the one that only scored two goals.I mean, far from me to criticize the 5th best team in the NHL at the moment, but that's exactly what we're going to do with our first note from practice.

The Leafs presently sit at 50 player contracts and are now starring down a new issue of having a lack of healthy defensemen.It should probably come as no surprise, no matter how much we hate to see it, that Wayne Simmonds has been placed on waivers, possibly in hope of opening up a contract space where the Leafs can add someone.

The Toronto Maple Leafs currently have two of their top four defenseman on the injured reserve, and are rumored to be in the market for some help at the position.Reports suggest the Toronto Maple Leafs have been kicking tires on the idea of adding Vancouver Canucks defenseman Tyler Myers.First and foremost, it'd seem the Leafs would only be making this deal because Tyler Myers offers some size on the blue-line.

After their most impressive defensive effort of the season in which they shut down Boston's red-hot offense, the Toronto Maple Leafs now head into Carolina to face off with the Hurricanes in the second half of a back-to-back with an early puck drop (5 p.m. EST, TSN4).Auston Matthews struck twice for the Leafs last night - once at 5v5 and once on the power play - to lift the Leafs over the Bruins 2-1, but it may prove to be something of a Pyrrhic victory depending on the seriousness of the injury to Ilya Samsonov's knee.

I'll spare you the trip down memory lane to the failed David Clarkson era and the mind-boggling stupidity of paying Matt Martin $2.5M AAV for four years.We can all acknowledge that the Leafs history is riddled with mistakes that only serve to ruin what could still be a pretty good weekend.Instead, we'll focus on the recent Keefe-era Leafs and explore how there seems to be a steady decline in outputs from physical forwards the second they put on the blue and white.

Back from the road trip of shame, the Leafs hit the ice today for a practice ahead of tomorrow's game vs the Flyers.At the same time, the conditioning loans to the AHL for Timothy Liljegren and Jordie Benn have expired, so the Leafs would need to request an extension for two days to have them remain in the AHL.

The Leafs have been just average enough that it's time to dust off the weekly rumours column and rosterbate until our very souls are chafed.Yesterday we got the ball rolling with the somewhat (read: very) impractical idea of trading for Jakob Chychrun, and today we'll shift gears towards a far more practical option.

The Leafs are still in Vegas and this could be leading to the "Vegas Flu" being a thing that benefits other west coast teams during Pacific road trips as well as the Leafs head out for San Jose tomorrow night.There were a few things worth noting from practice today, and we'll start with the important one first:
Tavares is practicing, Wayne Simmonds and Aube-Kubel in grey as potential scratches.

The Toronto Maple Leafs must trade away Pierre Engvall immediately.Toronto Maple Leafs forward Pierre Engvall currently looks like a player who hates his job.He's playing uninspired and is providing zero value.One of the biggest negatives regarding GM Kyle Dubas has been his inability to draft and develop bigger forwards.