The Leafs made all their cuts prior to their trip to Arizona to pick up Matthews wardrobe and bring it back to Toronto for the season. That's 84 games worth of designer leisure wear he has to have to hand, after all.

There is some serious business left however.

There are four injuries at this point: Max Domi who will start the season on LTIR, Nick Paul who has an undisclosed injury and may not play in the season opener, Dakota Joshua who has some kind of core injury and whose status is a little unclear and William Villeneuve who had surgery and is recovering so he starts the season on SOIR.

With Paul and Joshua out and Steven Lorentz not clicking with the new coach or GM, Zack MacEwen is on the roster. As well, Bo Groulx has vaulted over Lorentz and into the role of temporary fill-in for Paul.

In addition, Nick Blankenburg on a PTO, is expected to be signed to a contract soon. Per Puckpedia, the Leafs are at 49 SPCs with Tinus Luc Koblar loaned back to Rögle of the SHL, something that has been reported but not announced by the team.

For now, the cap situation, as per Puckpedia adds up like this:

Player Cap Hit
Matthews, Auston $13,250,000
Nylander, William $11,500,000
Knies, Matthew $7,750,000
Tavares, John $4,389,280
Sissons, Colton $4,250,000
Roslovic, Jack $4,000,000
Domi, Max - LTIR $3,750,000
Joshua, Dakota $3,250,000
Paul, Nick $3,150,000
Duhaime, Brandon $2,600,000
Blueger, Teddy $2,500,000
McKenna, Gavin $1,075,000
Cowan, Easton $900,000
MacEwen, Zack $875,000
Groulx, Bo $812,500
Raddysh, Darren $8,500,000
Rielly, Morgan $7,500,000
McCabe, Jake $4,513,102
Tanev, Christopher $4,500,000
Ekman-Larsson, Oliver $3,500,000
Andrae, Emil $1,550,000
Stecher, Troy $1,350,000
Blankenburg, Nick 0
Bobrovsky, Sergei $7,000,000
Stolarz, Anthony $3,750,000
Total $106,214,882
Additional Cap Charges
Buried
Lorentz, Steven $125,000
SOIR
Villeneuve, William $68,359
$106,408,241
Space -$2,408,241
LTIR Pool
Max Domi $3,750,000
Overall Space $1,341,759

The overall space in this case is LTIR pool, and that can be expanded by the amount of Villeneuve's SOIR by putting him on LTIR until he is ready to be waived and sent to the AHL. That space is going to shrink by whatever Blankenburg's contract is, and then, in time, when Paul and Joshua are ready to play, by whoever leaves the roster to get the numbers down to 23. There are currently 25 players on the roster with Domi on LTIR, so one more has to go, and it seems likely that will be Groulx once there is no one on IR.

To pull back from the details here, there is cap space and LTIR room for eight defenders and 13 forwards along with the goalies. This allows the team to cope with minor stints on IR, like with Nick Paul and Dakota Joshua, without recalling anyone. If they want a specific skillset – a centre, for example – they have a full roster and would have to send someone to the AHL – and any candidate would require waivers – to make the space.

This is a flexible roster, with injuries covered, only up to a point. And that raises the question of why any team would need all of Emil Andrae, Nick Blankenburg and Troy Stecher on the roster at the same time. They aren't all identical, but there is not a lot of difference in the value they bring.

There are some minor decisions yet to be made at the fringes of the roster, but it appears to be set now for the start of the season. I'm not sure that the team will stay at 50 SPCs for long though, that seems unwise.

No one from the Leafs was on waivers today.

Training Camp