Leafs defenseman headed to waivers after big trade.

Leafs sends veteran to waivers.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Leafs defenseman headed to waivers after big trade.
Daniel Lea/CSM/Zuma

The Toronto Maple Leafs have effectively just declared one of their players expendable. 

According to a breaking news report from Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman, the Toronto Maple Leafs have moved to place veteran defenseman Martin Marincin on waivers Saturday. The move is a relatively unsurprising one given the deal that the Maple Leafs made earlier during the week but nonetheless it could mark the end of Marincin's time as a member of the Maple Leafs. 

Although he has not been given a great deal of playing time this season, Marincin has appeared in only 10 total games for the Maple Leafs during the 2018 - 2019 NHL regular season, Marincin has proved himself to be a serviceable player on the blue line. It would not be shocking to learn that an NHL team would like to add him for some depth on the blue line as they head into the post season, and it will be interesting to see how many teams end up putting in a waiver claim for him with the next 24 hours. 

The move for the Leafs is likely designed to clear up the log jam that the organization has had on the blue line as of late following the acquisition of talented former Los Angeles Kings' defenseman Jake Muzzin. Muzzin was acquired in a trade between the Leafs and the Kings that would send forward Carl Grundstrom and the rights to unsigned defenseman Sean Durzi in the deal,as well as a first-round pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. The Leafs already had a number of defenseman that were not seeing much game time, including defenseman Justin Holl, and that like played a significant role in the decision to send Marincin down from general manager Kyle Dubas

One has to wonder if the analytics minded Dubas didn't also want to take that particular tool away from Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock and force him to play more offensively talented players like Holl in the event that he needs a depth defensman. through his 10 games played with the Leafs this season Marincin had no goals and 2 assists for 2 total points, 8 penalty minutes, and boasted a plus minus rating of -1 on the season.

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