Maple Leafs demote two players down to the AHL.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have just made a pair of roster moves and at the time of this writing it is unclear if these are just paper transactions in an effort to comply with the National Hockey League's salary cap, or if they signal the return of some key players to the Maple Leafs line up.

According to an official announcement from the Toronto Maple Leafs department of public relations, general manager Kyle Dubas has demoted both forward Pontus Aberg and defenseman Matt Marincin down to the American Hockey League where they will join the Toronto Marlies. The move comes right around the time that there have been significant rumors regarding a return for forward Trevor Moore and many suspect that today's move signals that the 24 year old forward is about to make his return to the line up sooner rather than later. That is only speculation at this time however so we are going to have to wait on see on what comes next for Moore. 

The move for Marincin is yet another sign that the Maple Leafs are gradually moving away from him this season with Marincin having now played just a combined 7 games for the Maple Leafs at the NHL level in the 2019 - 2020 regular season. Defenseman Justin Holl seems to have really picked up his game this season and that appears to have made Marincin a serviceable depth option for the Leafs but nothing more. Aberg on the other hand appeared in just 3 games for the Maple Leafs following his call up to the main roster and over those games he had no goals and 1 assist for a total of 1 point, a far cry from the 10 goals and 14 assists for 24 points he put up in just 22 games with the Marlies this season.

The Maple Leafs situation at the forward position is far more crowded than their blue line is at this time however, and there simply just is not room to fit Aberg into the Maple Leafs top 12 group of forwards given their current makeup. The return of Moore on the horizon, as well as that of Andreas Johnsson, only adds to that log jam up front for the Maple Leafs.