A look at all of the players that the Leafs have lost on waivers since 2018-19
It seems like whenever the Leafs put a player on waivers they end up getting claimed. Today it was revealed that it is not a conspiracy from Leaf fans, but instead a fact. Since the start of the 2018-2019 season 89 players have been claimed off waivers. 11 of them are Leafs, accounting for 12.3% of the League's waiver claims. Here is a list of players that the Leafs have lost on waivers.
Players like Adam Brooks and Dmytro Timashov were relatively young players who were stuck in no man's land in the Leafs organization. Weaker teams felt that they could gives these players a shot in the NHL and perhaps realize the potential that they hadn't met in Toronto.
In Brooks' case, he was claimed earlier this season but then re-claimed and waived by the Leafs. The Winnipeg Jets, who didn't put a claim on Brooks when Vegas waived him, claimed the 25-year-old after he was waived a day later by the Leafs. This left many fans believing that this move was just to upset the Leafs. There was merit to these thoughts because if you ask Mark Schiefele, nothing is better than beating the Leafs.
Meanwhile, veteran players like Curtis McElhinney and Nick Shore were lost to waivers since 2018 by the Leafs. McElhinney was coming off of a career season but the Leafs wanted to give Garret Sparks a shot in the NHL. The Leafs believed that in his mid-thirties, McElhinney wouldn't replicate the season that he had before. That move came back to haunt them because McElhinney was a serviceable backup for the rest of his NHL career, while Sparks washed out of the NHL. The Leafs struggled to find a replacement until trading for Jack Campbell. Nick Shore was a serviceable 4th line centre. The Leafs lost him to waivers but players of Nick Shore's caliber on cheap deals get claimed a lot.
Many of these players being claimed were surprises to both Leafs fans and management. Brendan Shanahan seemed genuinely surprised that Jimmy Vesey was claimed off of waivers in the All of Nothing series. Not because Vesey was not a good player but instead because of his "vanilla" play style. Meanwhile, players of the same caliber of Travis Boyd and Michael Amadio pass through waivers all the time. For some reason however, when they are waived by the Leafs other teams line up to claim the player.
The Leafs have more eyes on them than any other NHL team and perhaps that's why Leafs players aren't able to pass through waivers as easily, but it is a fact and not a speculation that the Leafs lose the most players to waivers in the NHL.
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