BREAKING: Mike Babcock mixed up his defensive squad this morning.

BREAKING: Mike Babcock mixed up his defensive squad this morning.

The respected TSN insider Pierre LeBrun confirmed Nikita Zaitsev was not on the ice this morning. Zaitsev played 82 games this season. He scored 4 goals and registered 32 assists for a total of 36 points.

Here what the defensive squad looked like at practice today:

Leafs D at practice

Gardiner-Polak
Rielly-Hunwick
Marincin-Carrick
Smith-Marchenko

Zaitsev absence putting Leafs D pairs in a blender https://t.co/L2CdPhoMBK
— Pierre LeBrun (@Real_ESPNLeBrun) April 12, 2017

This is going to be a problem. He's eaten a ton of tough minutes this year. https://t.co/OeTfAv1Gcu
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) April 12, 2017

BREAKING: Mike Babcock mixed up his defensive squad this morning.

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