My weather app is threatening snow, Starbucks is launching their holiday cups, and people on twitter are proposing that we trade William Nylander.

Tis the season y’all.

Now we don’t have time to get into all the reasons why “trade William Nylander” is probably not Kyle Dubas’ first, second, or sixteenth solution to the tightening of the cap belt forecast by Zach Hyman’s impending return...

...so I’m just gonna grumpily slap this article from last spring down here and then move on.

Criticize the real William Nylander

Trading Nylander aside, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to have to make some moves once Hyman returns from injury to make the roster work under the cap. We’ve covered what that might look like previously, and though that was pre-return for both John Tavares and Travis Dermott, the math still stands.

Doing the Maple Leafs cap space shuffle with John Tavares and Zach Hyman

Babcock did decide to make the speculation a bit extra spicy today by going on TSN and sharing that the Leafs will be going with 6 defensemen, leaving room for the delightfully chaotic option that, at some point this year, the Leafs will be forced to play a forward as a defensemen. That doesn’t necessarily bode well, since most of the Leafs’ forward group isn’t known for their defensive prowess, but honestly, neither are our D... and just think about what the rushes might look like! It’ll be like the powerplay, but all th–

Y’know what, never mind.

The Marlies remain the only team in the AHL who have yet to lose in regulation this year. Ten games in, we take a closer look at how the team’s been performing this year

Toronto Marlies 10 Game Report: the Marlies need more from their forwards

Women’s Hockey Wednesday asks why Canada vs USA games aren’t being sold better

WHW: Watch Canada vs USA this weekend

And the Leafs twitter account hit us up with some sick wallpapers

From The Branches