Babcock attempts to explain Leafs decision to acquire young defenseman

Back in early February the Toronto Maple Leafs made a curious move when they acquired 26-year-old defenseman Alexey Marchenko off of waivers from the Red Wings.

The move was curious if only because they Leafs already had a young defenseman in their system in the form of Frank Corrado who wasn't very happy about his playing time during the course of the season. The Leafs would waive Corrado that day, but now Marchenko has taken his place having played in a total of zero games for the Leafs since joining their organization. 

Leafs head coach Mike Babcock was asked why the team even bothered to acquire him this week and he gave a curious response. Babcock told the press that while the organization felt Marchenko could help the team, they were in no rush to get him into the lineup. 

We may be reading too much into this, but it almost feels like the Leafs claimed him to prevent a rival from getting their hands on him.

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