Leafs make sneaky roster transaction on Sunday, still have one more to make in the coming days
The Leafs are officially back home in Toronto today after a 4-3 regulation win last night in Colorado, thanks to a brilliant performance and a hat trick from the birthday boy, Tyler Bertuzzi.
The team has now won 7 straight games, which is the team's longest win streak since 2003-04, if you can believe it. That's quite the story in and of itself when you consider where the Leafs were just a few short weeks ago, with some wondering whether they should just punt on this season and tweak the roster for next year instead. Now, it looks like this team is a contender and will be buyers at the deadline.
Before we get to the deadline, though, the Leafs still need to try to integrate a few key players back into the lineup without disrupting the balance of what has made them successful over their most recent 7-game run. With Mark Giordano (personal leave), Joseph Woll (ankle) and Calle Jarnkrok (knuckle) due back here soon, the Leafs have some big decisions to make about who will be coming out.
One such decision appears to have been made on Sunday, as the Leafs no longer have Maxime Lajoie listed on the 23-man NHL roster. The Leafs currently have 21 players on the official NHL roster, meaning that they'll need one more move to become eligible to bring Gio, Jarnkrok and Woll back into the fold.
Lajoie played 3 games for the Leafs during their active 7-game win streak, playing a season-high 20:29 against the Anaheim Ducks back on February 17th in a 9-2 win. Lajoie also played against the Blues on February 19th and the Coyotes on February 21st before coming out of the lineup against Vegas on February 22nd.
As for the Leafs' final roster move, we don't yet know what that will be. There's a chance that Martin Jones is waived in the coming days to make way for Joseph Woll's return, but if the Leafs want to carry 3 goalies to avoid losing Jones, they may have a tough decision on who to demote. Both Pontus Holmberg and Nicholas Robertson are waivers exempt, but both have shown recently that they belong in the NHL. Bobby McMann needs waivers to be sent down to the Marlies, but like Robertson and Holmberg, he has shown that he belongs in the NHL as well with his recent goal scoring surge.
William Lagesson might just be the odd man out in Toronto, especially with the Leafs now knowing that they can count on Lajoie and rookie Marshall Rifai in a pinch and still be able to win big games. We'll have to see how the chips fall this week if/when Gio, Woll and Jarnkrok are set to return.
| POLL | ||
25 FEVRIER | 906 ANSWERS Leafs make sneaky roster transaction on Sunday, still have one more to make in the coming days Are the Maple Leafs a true Stanley Cup contender? | ||
| Yes | 364 | 40.2 % |
| No | 183 | 20.2 % |
| They will be if they acquire a top-4 D | 359 | 39.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
