CarltonTheBear said:
Leafs likely roster once Timmins is cleared to play:
Bertuzzi-Matthews-Marner
Domi-Tavares-Nylander
Knies-Kampf-Jarnkrok
Gregor-Reaves
Rielly-Brodie
McCabe-Klingberg
Giordano-Liljgren
Timmins
Samsonov
Woll
That leaves the team with only 11 forwards about $670k in cap space, not enough to call-up any other player in the organization. I started to wonder though if a solution to that could be trying to acquire a player with enough retention to fit under the cap.
It could simply be a player at league minimum with 15% retention, or someone with a cap hit as high as $1.3mil with 50% retention. Some sort of sweetener would obviously be required on the Leafs end to make that worth another teams while though.
I thought I found an almost perfect target for this. Kevin Rooney in Calgary, a defensive 4C type player who Treliving signed to a 2-year, $1.3mil AAV deal last summer. Things didn't go great for Rooney in his first year with the Flames. Had just 1 assist in 17 games before being demoted to the AHL. Was likely destined for the AHL again this year so I thought maybe Calgary could be open to moving him and saving some cash. At 50% retained the Leafs could have a 21-man roster that includes Timmins that's roughly $19k under the cap.
Unfortunately Rooney got hurt in the final week of Calgary's training camp. There wasn't much of a status update for him other than that it's not "short-term". If he's back around when Timmins returns though it still feels like something worth exploring.
Good creative thinking there. I would not have thought of that as an option.
Alleged by the hockey media during the summer, Treliving is reputed to like strong, physical Dmen. Calgary D is supposedly an example of that.
Then he goes out and signs Klingberg ...
A 3rd scoring/defensive center is identified as a need in preseason.
Nylander is floated.
Minten has a great preseason with the odds against him remaining in the NHL.
Maybe Timmins timing for recovery coincides close enough with Minten's 1st 9 games ... ?
Regardless, I do not see this D being the one Leafs go into the playoff wars with.
Something is going to change. It seems highly likely that it needs one more physical dman who can help the PK (kind of like Minten - we'll see how the PK does in the first 10 games ..).
Timmins or someone else (Brodie?) might be following Lafferty out of town to make cap space.
Liljegren's $1.4 mil could make room for Timmins who beefed up this summer. I like Liljegren so that might not be my choice.
Brodie is interesting because they might land help for a physical dman and a 3rd line center with his $5 mil off the roster (if they can find a taker for a reasonable price).
Reflecting on Lyubushkin or Schenn of years gone by, it wouldn't be the first time someone thought that type of dman (probably not Timmins) could help Rielly ...
I think this roster is a work in progress. They're clearly not done. I don't think they're going to wait to the March deadline to make some adjustments.
