Seventy-three hopefuls will take the ice on Thursday morning at the Ford Performance Centre. Only 23 will be with the Toronto Maple Leafs when final cuts come on the afternoon of Oct. 6.
With so many extra bodies in play, the Leafs will split camp into three groups that will skate in morning and afternoon sessions. With six preseason games starting in short order, with the first in Ottawa on Sunday, they’ll begin to have “game” groups and “practice” groups at camp within the first few days.
The reason NHL clubs like the Leafs have so many players in camp: they’re actually producing rosters for three pro teams between the Leafs, the AHL Marlies and the Cincinnati Cyclones in the ECHL. With camp only set to last 17 days, the initial cuts will come relatively quickly, returning some players to junior and sending others to the start of a Marlies camp across the FPC hallway with coach John Gruden.
There aren’t a ton of roster openings for the Leafs this year with their entire cast of goalies and defencemen returning from last season, but up front things are still pretty interesting with just how many NHL-calibre players are in play. Having the cap flexibility they do also means cuts aren’t as easy to forecast, as cap hits aren’t going to dictate roster decisions this season.
So, let’s break down who slots where going into camp. Players in each group are in alphabetical order.
NHL roster locks (19)
Forwards (11): Max Domi, Dakota Joshua, Matthew Knies, Scott Laughton, Steven Lorentz, Matias Maccelli, Auston Matthews, Bobby McMann, William Nylander, Nicolas Roy, John Tavares
Defence (6): Simon Benoit, Brandon Carlo, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jake McCabe, Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev
Goal (2): Anthony Stolarz, Joseph Woll
Analysis: This many roster locks doesn’t leave a whole lot of breathing room for the other 50-odd folks in camp, but that’s life when you’re a veteran team with eyes on playoff success and Cup contention. (Yes, the window is still open.)
With the Leafs’ D pairs basically set with what they used in the postseason (McCabe-Tanev, Rielly-Carlo, Benoit-OEL), the biggest intrigue is going to be the three newcomers up front — Joshua, Maccelli and Roy — and where they end up slotting. Roy is a lock for the 3C spot, but Joshua and Maccelli could potentially end up on any of the four lines, depending on how radical head coach Craig Berube wants to get.
I wonder, too, if they give Laughton a look higher in the lineup than the 4C spot he ended last year, as he’s played a bigger role for most of his career than he fell into with the Leafs after coming over for a first-round pick at the trade deadline.
Consider the names listed here as players who aren’t going to move around all that much, in camp or this season:
Line 1: Knies – Matthews – ???
Line 2: ??? – Tavares – Nylander
Line 3: ??? – Roy – ???
Line 4: Lorentz – ??? – ???
With Domi out with a minor injury to start camp, that’ll give someone unexpected a look higher in the lineup, too. Maybe one of the players listed in this next section …
In a battle / On the bubble (7)
Forwards (5): Easton Cowan, Calle Järnkrok, David Kämpf, Michael Pezzetta, Nick Robertson
Defence (2): Philippe Myers, Henry Thrun
Goal: none
Analysis: With the cap flexibility Toronto has, carrying 23 players after camp ends is going to be a no-brainer. Most NHL teams use that allocation to have 14 forwards and seven defencemen; some, however, go with only one extra forward and eight defenders.
Of this group, only Cowan won’t require waivers, so that’s something to consider when making final cuts. If they don’t have injuries in camp, at least two or three of the above names will be offered up around the league at some point.
Robertson’s name continues to be out there in trade rumours, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if Kämpf is moved if another team shows interest. Centres are in scarce supply around the league right now, and the fact he played just one game in the playoffs was telling. Getting out from under his $2.4 million cap hit for two seasons may not be easy, however.
On the back end, Thrun will be an interesting name to watch in camp. He’s only 24 and has played mostly in the NHL (with the rebuilding Sharks) after lighting things up with Harvard in the NCAA as a young player. In an ideal world, the Leafs would like a little more puck moving on their back end; does that mean Thrun gets a look over some of the more veteran options I have listed below? Or was he simply a throw-in in the deal to dump Ryan Reaves in the offseason?
I wonder if we might see one forward dealt, Cowan sent down, and Myers and another extra D given an opportunity on the back end to start the season. And it’s worth asking whether Pezzetta is guaranteed an NHL roster spot or not, given his limited skill set.
Henry Thrun could surprise at Maple Leafs training camp after arriving in the Ryan Reaves trade. (Robert Edwards / Imagn Images)Injury fill-ins / dark-horse candidates (10)
Forwards (6): Travis Boyd, Luke Haymes, Reese Johnson, Vinni Lettieri, Alexander Nylander, Jacob Quillan
Defence (3): Matt Benning, Dakota Mermis, Marshall Rifai
Goal (1): Dennis Hildeby
Analysis: We are 36 players deep into the camp depth chart, and there are still a lot of players who have played NHL games here. It’s interesting that Boyd, Lettieri and Alex Nylander all signed in Toronto given the apparent lack of opportunity with the Leafs, but it’s possible a run of injuries allows for a midseason call-up for one or two of them. (It helps, too, that the Marlies pay vets better than other AHL outfits.)
At minimum, they replace the scoring the Marlies lost with Alex Steeves and Nick Abruzzese signing with division rivals in Boston and Tampa.
Haymes and Quillan represent the NCAA lottery tickets the Leafs have been trying to bring in to compensate for their lack of high-end picks and prospects of late. Both have potential and may get a brief look at some point depending on how they develop with the Marlies this season.
Mermis played four games in the NHL last season (and was actually claimed away from Toronto by Utah at one point) so he feels like next man up if the Leafs have a couple of injuries on the back end. Toronto’s not super deep in the call-up department on the blue line, which is one reason it won’t want to lose Myers on waivers out of camp. Benning has a lot of NHL experience but has had some really tough injuries and has barely played at that level since 2022-23.
Hildeby, meanwhile, feels like a lock for some NHL action given the Leafs didn’t sign a veteran No. 3 with the departure of Matt Murray.
Marlies / ECHL / junior-bound (37)
Forwards (22): Brandon Baddock, Matthew Barbolini, Gunnarwolfe Fontaine, Luke Grainger, Bo Groulx, Matthew Hlacar, Miroslav Holinka, Tyler Hopkins, Marc Johnstone, Ben King, Ryan Kirwan, Braeden Kressler, Sam McCue, Harry Nansi, Cédric Paré, Nick Rhéaume, Logan Shaw, Landon Sim, Marko Sikic, Sam Stevens, Ryan Tverberg, Borya Valis
Defence (12): Noah Chadwick, Owen Conrad (ATO), Ben Danford, Rylan Fellinger, Nathan Mayes, Ryan McCleary, Rhett Parsons, John Prokop, Chas Sharpe, Blake Smith, William Villeneuve, Cade Webber
Goal (3): Ken Appleby, Artur Akhtyamov, Vyacheslav Peksa
Analysis: A very large percentage of these players are either recent mid- to late-round picks or AHL free-agent signings, with few on NHL deals at this point. That’s what they’re fighting for here: to get noticed by Gruden and Berube and maybe get bumped up a rung at some point.
One exception is Owen Conrad, a big 18-year-old D-man who played in the Q last year and went undrafted. He’s been through Leafs development and rookie camps and is now on an amateur tryout, trying to earn an entry-level contract.
Of everyone listed here, Akhtyamov might have the best shot at playing for the Leafs, as he started last season strong with the Marlies and the reality is teams get down to their fourth goalie at times over the course of a long season. (Or maybe Brad Treliving gives 30-year-old journeyman Appleby some of those games on the NHL bench, where he’s been used sparingly in the past with the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders.)
Other young players worth keep an eye on in camp include 2024 first-rounder and top D prospect Ben Danford, 2024 fifth-rounder Holinka, and Villeneuve, who put up 40 points in only 55 games as a 22-year-old in the AHL last year.
Which players get looks in the six exhibition games will be telling, as there’s a lot of competition for those slots and not as many opportunities as in the past. The Leafs are likely to want to get down to their core group of 30-ish NHL players fairly fast, so many of the kids here may only get one look early on in the process.
(Top photo: Nick Turchiaro / Imagn Images)