Leafs announce a surprising roster move that nobody saw coming
Ahead of last night's game against the Nashville Predators, the Toronto Maple Leafs recalled defenceman Mikko Kokkonen from the Toronto Marlies. Kokkonen took warmups with the Leafs, meaning that someone on the blueline was likely a game-time decision.
The Leafs are already without the likes of John Klingberg, Timothy Liljegren and Mark Giordano, so another injury at this point would be nothing short of catastrophic for the organization, especially with another one of their defenders also battling an illness.
William Lagesson, who had been elevated into a top-four role in Mark Giordano's absence, has been battling an illness for the past week and has not played since December 2nd, meaning he would have been unavailable last night. It is likely that following the morning skate, head coach Sheldon Keefe was made aware that one of his defencemen was banged up and might need a game off which is why the Leafs made the decision to recall Kokkenen.
Kokkenen was a third-round pick of the Leafs in the 2019 draft and made his North American debut during the 2020-2021 season. In 17 games with the Marlies so far, the 6', 200 pounder has 2 goals and 4 points.
It's really anyone's guess if he'll see any action during his emergency recall. I'd highly doubt it, though, unless there's an injury of some kind.
| POLL | ||
DECEMBRE 10 | 443 ANSWERS Leafs announce a surprising roster move that nobody saw coming Who do you think was a game-time decision last night? | ||
| Benoit | 89 | 20.1 % |
| Lajoie | 187 | 42.2 % |
| McCabe | 68 | 15.3 % |
| Other | 99 | 22.3 % |
| List of polls | ||
