Maple Leafs Make Exciting Announcement Regarding Jani Hakanpaa and Connor Dewar

The Maple Leafs made an exciting announcement Friday morning about the return of Jani Hakanpaa and Connor Dewar following lengthy injury rehabs.

Many expected Hakanpaa and Dewar to return to the Leafs' lineup in short order after they travelled with the team on their weekend road-trip and were full participants in practices. Hakanpaa himself, was eager to be cleared to return and was hopeful he would be removed from LTIR following practice on Thursday.

Hakanpaa and Dewar didn't have to wait long as the pair was removed from LTIR Friday morning and assigned to the Toronto Marlies for a conditioning stint.

Dewar had off-season shoulder surgery and was expected to miss the start of the regular season while Hakanpaa had been dealing with a concerning knee injury that forced the Leafs to hold off on signing the hulking, 6'7 defenseman until early September.

It was inevitable that the duo would be activated from LTIR, and was all but confirmed Wednesday evening when the Leafs traded Timothy Liljegren to San Jose to clear $1.75M in cap space after acquiring Matt Benning and his $1.25M cap hit along with a pair of picks in return. That being said, the Leafs still need to make a pair of moves to free up roster space as they are currently carrying the maximum 23 players on their roster.

With Hakanpaa and Dewar currently on a conditioning stint, the Leafs will have at least the weekend to figure out how they will go about creating two roster spots. The most likely scenario is to place two players on waivers, but with Treliving, anything is possible. How the Leafs deploy their roster over the weekend should provide some clarity as to who are the odd men out and where Dewar and Hakanpaa will fit into the lineup when they return from their respective conditioning stints with Marlies.

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