Breaking: Leafs make surprising move that points to another move coming soon.

Move from the Leafs raises a ton of questions.

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HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Leafs make surprising move that points to another move coming soon.
Kostas Lymperopoulos/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto have just made a very curious roster move, one that indicates that there is almost assuredly another move on the horizon.

First, according to Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Chris Johnston the Maple Leafs have assigned talented young defenseman Travis Dermott to the American Hockey League's Toronto Marlies for the express purpose of clearing space on the Maple Leafs roster for the recently signed William Nylander. Now although it was expected that a Leafs' player would be sent down to the Marlies or placed on waivers in order to clear room for Nylander no one expected that player to be Dermott. There are plenty of names, including Justin Holl and Matt Marincin in particular, who should be sent down long before Dermott but Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas has instead opted to go this route. 

What's of particular interest here is the fact that Johnston does not believe that Dermott is actually being loaned to the Marlies and instead this is merely a move designed to put the Leafs in compliance with the NHL's rules as per the collective bargaining agreement. Instead Johnston stated that he would be "surprised" if the Leafs did not have Dermott in the line up for Tuesday's game against the Buffalo Sabres, something that would unquestionably require the Leafs to make yet another adjustment to their roster.

That leaves us with only two options, either a player from the Leafs roster will be placed on waivers during the day on Monday or the Maple Leafs are currently orchestrating a trade that they believe will vacate the necessary roster spot. Now if it was simply the matter of placing a player on the waiver wire the Leafs could have easily done so already by placing either the aforementioned Holl or Marincin through the waiver process with the express intent of sending them down, but that did not happen. Instead they sent down Dermott who they did not need to submit to the waiver process and that begs the question why? 

This is purely speculation on my part but I do believe that Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas is now attempting to trade one of his roster players, but who that player could be is anyone's guess at this time.

[pub]


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