Leafs Officially Demote Rookie, Recall Veteran Defenseman Amid Ekman-Larsson Injury Speculation

Fraser Minten was held out of the Leafs' lineup on Saturday as the club welcomed back Matthew Knies and John Tavares from injuries. Unfortunately, as the forward group got healthier, the blueline lost a significant piece.

Oliver Ekman-Larsson left Saturday's game after the first period with a lower-body injury, forcing the club to rely heavily on Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins as well as Jake McCabe who played a career-high of over 30 minutes in the 4-3 regulation win.

The Leafs announced on Monday that they had sent Minten back down to the Toronto Marlies and have also recalled defenseman Dakota Mermis from the AHL with the uncertainty surrounding OEL.

The undrafted 31-year-old suffered a broken jaw during training camp and had only recently rejoined the Leafs organization after they reclaimed him off of waivers from Utah.

The 6-foot, 197-pound defenseman got into one game with Utah before being reclaimed by the Leafs and has since skated in 12 games with the Marlies, registering 3 assists.

Mermis doesn't have a ton of NHL experience, skating in 75 games since turning pro in 2015, but the majority of those games came last season with the Minnesota Wild where he posted 8 points and averaged a shade more than 14 minutes of ice-time per game.

At the very least, his addition gives Craig Berube a chance to try a few different pairings in the hopes of finding depth from within instead of having GM Brad Treliving divert from the initial trade deadline approach of adding an impact center.