Suspicious Activity at Maple Leafs' Optional Skate Points to a Potentially Interesting Scenario
Only two skaters took part in the Leafs' optional skate Tuesday morning in Columbus which could point to at least one potential roster move coming for the Leafs.
Following a 5-2 win Monday against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs held an optional skate in Columbus ahead of Tuesday's game against the Blue Jackets where only Timothy Liljegren and David Kampf took to the ice, along with goaltender Joseph Woll. Woll has been recovering from a groin injury, so it is no surprise to see him take to the ice even though Craig Berube said he might be an option for Tuesday's game.
Liljegren has played in just one game for the Leafs so far this season amid plenty of trade speculation, while Kampf has seen his ice-time diminish under Berube.
Connor Dewar and Jani Hakanpaa have been on LTIR since the beginning of the season, along with Calle Jarnkrok, as they all recover from various injuries, which has forced the Leafs to operate under LTIR as long as possible while they figure out their roster.
The Leafs are currently $5.1M over the cap and have $5.4M of total salary on the LTIR which will lead to some very interesting decisions when everyone is healthy. Given that the fact that the Leafs don't exactly have another fourth line center to replace Kampf in the lineup, seeing him on the ice is somewhat surprising ahead of a game in a back-to-back situation.
With he and Liljegren being the only two Leaf skaters at practice, speculation has risen given the combined salary of the two depth players, which is $5.4M or exactly what the Leafs have in injuries on LTIR. Although it sounds like Jarnkrok won't be back for a while, the minimum LTIR stint for Hakanpaa and Dewar is coming to an end very shortly, which means the Leafs will need to clear at least $2.6M in cap space to activate both.
Trading Liljegren easily frees up that amount of space, while trading Kampf would mean the Leafs would need to trade another player as well. Regardless of how the Leafs navigate their cap situation, with both players seeing their playing time decrease under Berube, it appears that one or both could be on their way out of Toronto sooner than later.
