Maple Leafs make significant change to home opener roster thanks to paper move!

LATEST UPDATE: The Maple Leafs have decided not to add Easton Cowan to their opening night's lineup. More here:

On Monday, Easton Cowan was not named to the team’s opening-night roster on Monday despite a promising training camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Fans were stunned, frustrated even.

However, the move made sense in a way. The Maple Leafs, like all other NHL teams, had to submit their opening-night roster that was salary cap compliant by October 6 at 5 p.m.. Earlier in the day, the Leafs claimed forward Sammy Blais and goaltender Cayden Primeau off waivers.

And so, Jacob Quillan was on it rather than Cowan.

But it changed on Wednesday morning, hours ahead of the Leafs’ home opener against the Montreal Canadiens, when the team announced they had assigned Quillan to the Toronto Marlies (AHL), but more importantly, that Cowan had been recalled.

Cowan worked as the team’s 13th forward in practice Sunday before Monday’s roster was announced. He now returns with the team for the first game of their season. He will make his NHL debut tonight.

The young forward posted 29 goals and 69 points in 46 games with the London Knights last year, and then added 13 goals and 39 points in 17 playoff games as London repeated as OHL champions.At the Memorial Cup, he went on to record three goals and seven points to tie for the tournament lead in scoring and took home the Stafford Smythe Trophy as tournament MVP.

This was all a series of cap moves. As you know, Scott Laughton is out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, and goalie Joseph Woll has left the team for personal reasons. Because neither player is officially on injured reserve, both still count against the cap for now. Meanwhile, Marshall Rifai (wrist injury) will miss at least 10 games and 24 days, making him eligible for Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR). His $775,000 cap hit will move there soon.

When a team uses LTIR, the goal is to get as close to the salary cap as possible before moving the player, so they can maximize relief. That’s why the Leafs chose to keep Jacob Quillan ($875K cap hit) over Easton Cowan ($873.5K) : a difference of just $1,500.

With the current setup, Toronto has $19,721 in cap space. Once Rifai goes on LTIR, that jumps to about $755,000. Therefore, they can now swap Quillan for Cowan and keep that same space.

So why were the Leafs allowed to send Cowan down and call him right back up without him playing a game? Normally, “paper moves” like that were banned under the new CBA extension. But since the AHL season hasn’t started yet, teams are temporarily allowed to make them until October 10.

The Leafs are right up against the cap, playing chess with every dollar, and for now, they’ve managed to stay just inside the lines.