Special treatment ends here for the Maple Leafs…

Earlier in the day, the Toronto Maple Leafs had two unidentified goaltenders on the ice for their morning skate Tuesday, ahead of that night’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The team managed to recall Joseph Woll by using the Roster Emergency Exemption (REE), something they were unable to use on Monday after the NHL deemed that conditions for it were not met.

The Leafs finally got the league to allow them to recall Woll despite cap complications, but it sounds like the Leafs are the only ones to blame here. Darren Dreger explained on last night’s Insider Trading on TSN how the NHL might not make changes in the CBA going forward despite the mess in Toronto.

« It’s not going to lead to an imminent change but what it leads to is more speculation and discussions among NHL clubs, specifically NHL general managers. When you’re a cap team like the Maple Leafs, you’re probably looking at that predicament and recognizing that that this is the most important position on the roster.

So it could be that the NHL, inside the collective bargaining agreement with the players’ association, create a specific emergency recall scenario for goalies only. Or at least more allowance and flexibility in what is a very rigid system right now that governs that emergency recall.

For the Maple Leafs, there was an argument that they put themselves in that situation by signing rookie Matthew Knies to his first NHL contract, but they could not control the concussion that goaltender Matt Murray suffered. So, it’s no question it’s problematic and there will be more dialogue required. »

The Leafs did not have the cap space to recall Woll, however the REE allows for a recall with no cap hit.

The Leafs surely couldn’t predict the injuries in between the pipes, but you got to have some room for desperate situations like this! All 31 other teams appear to be able to do so…

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