Sheldon Keefe reveals his reasoning for the most recent lineup changes
When Leafs practice kicked off on Saturday afternoon, we were surprised to learn that head coach Sheldon Keefe had decided to break up what has been a very solid second line, shifting Mitch Marner back up to the top line to play alongside Auston Matthews and Michael Bunting and sliding the red-hot William Nylander down to the 2nd line to play with the newly-acquired Ryan O'Reilly and captain John Tavares.
Some had speculated that the move was to get Auston Matthews going, as the reigning league MVP has not had his name penciled in on the score sheet in any of his last 3 games. Bunting, Matthews and Marner formed one of the NHL's most potent trios last season, so there's certainly hope that they can quickly re-discover some of that magic as the Leafs look to find the optimal mix in the top 6.
According to Keefe, however, since the Leafs acquired O'Reilly, he was looking for the right opportunity to slide Nylander back down to line 2 to give them a look together. He confirmed that that's not the only combination he'd like to see as the regular season winds down, suggesting that we're yet to see even more line shuffling.
The Leafs may yet add another body or two to the lineup, as GM Kyle Dubas remains in active discussions to address additional roster needs ahead of Friday's trade deadline. Over the last couple of days, the Leafs have waived both Joey Anderson and Jordie Benn. Anderson has already cleared waivers, meaning he can move up and down without having to worry about waivers again for the majority of the remainder of the season. In Benn's case, he was placed on waivers today at 2pm, meaning that we won't know his fate until tomorrow.
If Benn clears and the Leafs assign he and Anderson to the AHL's Toronto Marlies, it will give the Leafs just over $2M in cap space with which to work once Matt Murray comes off of LTIR. As we know from Ryan O'Reilly's $1.875M cap hit, the Leafs can do some real damage with $2M in cap space, as long as they can afford the double salary retention. The Buds can increase their available cap space as well by moving one of Pierre Engvall, Justin Holl or Alexander Kerfoot as well, creating anywhere between $4M and $5.5M depending on who they decide to move. As such, we may yet see multiple deals coming for the Leafs, who appear to be all-in this season.
