Leafs Announce Roster for Thursday's Clash with Canadiens; Grebenkin a Scratch

Easton Cowan will skate in his third pre-season game for the Leafs Thursday night as the Leafs are dressing almost their entire lineup of regulars. Cowan, along with Max Pacioretty and Steven Lorentz will draw into the lineup in place of Calle Jarnkrok, Connor Dewar and Auston Matthews, while Matt Murray will step in for Joseph Woll.

Nicholas Robertson also draws in again as he looks to continue to prove that he deserves to take over the spot left by the departure of Tyler Bertuzzi. The hope for Robertson is that he can make the team and really flourish this season after a controversial trade request this summer.

Matthews is dealing with an upper-body injury that he suffered at practice earlier this week, while Jarnkrok is dealing with a lower-body injury. Dewar is currently rehabbing from off-season shoulder surgery and was expected to miss the early stages of training camp.

The Leafs will also roll out their projected defensive pairs to begin the season with all of Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Timothy Liljegren, Jake McCabe and Simon Benoit playing.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the absence of Nikita Grebenkin after a very strong start to his training camp. Grebenkin did not have his best outing on Tuesday against Ottawa, which may have hurt his chances of making the team straight out of camp.

Murray and Anthony Stolarz will be between the pipes for the Leafs as Woll gets his second consecutive game off.