Yesterday, the Toronto Maple Leafs made their first cuts at training camp. They sent six of their junior-aged prospects back to their respective CHL clubs as their regular seasons started this weekend.

Ben Danford (RD) is still on the Leafs training camp roster as they begin their handful of preseason games. He’s been paired with Marlies top pair defender Marshall Rifai this weekend in camp and it looks like they’re going to give him a chance to show what he can do — or at the very least learn from AHLish competition — before going back to Oshawa. The odds he makes the Leafs opening roster is very low as a 19-year-old defender, but not impossible. He plays exactly how Craig Bérubé wants his defenders to play. If Danford were three or four years older I’m sure he would be more-or-less a lock. But for now, I think the most he can do is delay when he gets returned to his OHL team.

Miroslav Holinka (C) is also a junior-aged prospect still on the camp roster. He should feel good about getting to stay on at Leafs camp a bit longer than his peers after a very good rookie camp and prospect tournament. He shone against the background of bottom six forwards he was lined up with and got time in the top six in the games he played. We might get a chance to see what he can do in a preseason game today or this week. Holinka hasn’t gotten any mentions in the media availabilities so his staying in Toronto for the time being came as a surprise to me (I’m sure it wasn’t a surprise for Brigstew). Holinka will presumably get returned to the Edmonton Oil Kings sooner or later, how many games in a Leafs sweater he gets before heading back west is mostly up to him.

Waivers Exempt

Looking past the junior prospects, there are two ways players can be removed from the Leafs roster. They can either be directly assigned to the AHL Toronto Marlies or ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones, or they are required to pass through waivers first before being reassigned. Waivers, for those who don’t know or need a reminder, is a mechanism where if a team doesn’t want a player, let’s call him Nick, then all 31 other NHL teams in the league also get a chance to say that they too don’t want Nick on their NHL roster and are content letting them go somewhere else. A player who passes through waivers is not required to be assigned to a minor league, but that is the most common result. In some cases, players go through waivers in order to mutually agree with the team to terminate their contract.

Players require waivers if they hit either an NHL games threshold or years on an NHL contract. It is different for every player depending on how old they are when they sign their ELC or if they’re a goalie. PuckPedia has an excellent search tool that lets you see those thresholds for each player.

In short, here are the players exempt from waivers ahead of the start of the season. Waivers opens 12 days before the start of the regular season, and 12 days before October 7th is September 25th.

Easton Cowan (LW)
Luke Haymes (C)
Braeden Kressler (RW)
Jacob Quillan (LW/C)
Ryan Tverberg (RW)
Borya Valis (RW)
Noah Chadwick (LD)
John Prokop (LD)
Blake Smith (LD)
Cade Webber (LD)
Artur Akhtyamov (G)
Dennis Hildeby (G)
Vyacheslav Peksa (G)

The Marlies first preseason game is October 4th and the league has preseason games starting on October 1st. It’s likely in the day or two before we’ll see a lot of these players get reassigned.

Waivers Eligible

And these are the players that require waivers should they not make the Leafs out of training camp. The day before final rosters are due in the NHL is the big waivers day, and anyone who is on the bubble will hopefully be sneaked through so the Leafs can keep their depth and Marlies their leadership.

Travis Boyd (RW)
Bo Groulx (C)
Vinnie Lettieri (RW)
Michael Pezzetta (LW)
Nicholas Robertson (LW)
Matt Benning (RD)
Simon Benoit (LD)
Dakota Mermis (LD)
Philippe Myers (RD)
Marshall Rifai (LD)
Henry Thrun (LD)
William Villeneuve (RD)

Anyone else on the Leafs roster will obviously need waivers and asking whether Matthew Knies needs waivers is a silly question.

In the past, the Leafs have been forced to make roster decisions based on minimizing who gets lost on waivers. For example, there isn’t space for a prospect to get some games because after they get sent back then the guy he replaced is on Vegas or Arizona or Ottawa now. The Leafs this year have a very long taper of depth options, so losing one or two doesn’t feel like as big of a deal. It also leads from a mindset that is less precious about depth players. Lose one on waivers, another will come around, or simply bring in the next man up. In short, there’s space if Cowan, or Haymes, or Quillan, or Danford, or whoever earn some number of NHL games like Minten and Grebenkin did. Waivers isn’t going to make or break the Leafs season. There’s plenty of other factors that register much higher.

And finally, there are 22 players on AHL contracts or PTOs also at Leafs camp. You’ve seen a handful of them in the group lineups, like Landon Sim, though most are on the third pad at the facility. These players aren’t subject to NHL contract rules, though they do have an impact on the veteran rule in place in AHL games and preseason games, which is a whole kettle of fish I won’t get into. These players will also be heading to Marlies camp, or subsequently to the Cyclones.

I’ve put the list in mostly alphabetical order, but with the presumed Marlies on AHL contracts ahead of the presumed Cyclones.

AHL Contracts

Brandon Baddock (LW)
Matthew Barbolini (LW)
Reese Johnson (C)
Marc Johnstone (RW)
Alex Nylander (RW)
Cedric Pare (LW)
Logan Shaw "C" (RW)
Landon Sim (LW)
Gunnarwolfe Fontaine (LW)
Luke Grainger (RW)
Ben King (C)
Ryan Kirwan (LW)
Nick Rhéaume (LW)
Marko Sikic (RW)
Sam Stevens (C)
Ryan McCleary (RD)
Rhett Parsons (RD)
Chas Sharpe (RD)
Ken Appleby (G)

A quick comment, I think from what we’ve seen this summer that Sim has beaten Borya Valis at the very least out of an AHL job. We saw a very disappointing summer from Valis, he wasn’t at the pace. Ken Appleby spent last season in the AHL so he’s the veteran third goalie with Hildeby and one of the two Russians.

Lastly, an interesting ATO

Owen Conrad (LD)

Brigstew has been very impressed with Owen Conrad, an undrafted prospect from this most recent draft. Brigs considers him a Danford-lite, though the degree of lite is probably very. He's been on an ATO with the Leafs and they really make me wonder why he wasn't drafted and Matthew Hlacar was.

Training Camp