The Maple Leafs announced Friday that ahead Connor Dewar and defenseman Jani Hakanpää will get some AHL motion beneath their belt after being assigned to the Toronto Marlies on conditioning stints. They’ll stay on long-term injured reserve and received’t rely towards the NHL roster till they’re able to return.
In contrast to common conditioning loans through which a participant stays on the energetic roster however can play as many AHL video games as are scheduled for his or her affiliate membership over two weeks, LTIR conditioning loans can solely final for as much as six days or three video games, whichever comes first. After the conditioning mortgage ends, the workforce should activate the participant from LTIR in the event that they’re deemed able to return to play and haven’t sustained any setbacks of their restoration.
Which means some important roster strikes might be coming for the Leafs subsequent week, assuming Dewar’s and Hakanpää’s loans are profitable. They’ve the required cap area to activate them, particularly after liberating up a good chunk of cash by swapping Timothy Liljegren ($3M cap hit) for Matt Benning ($1.25M cap hit) in their trade with the Sharks earlier this week. However they lack precise roster area, and so they’ll must take away two gamers from the 23-man roster to activate them.
A type of two strikes will undoubtedly be waiving depth defenseman Philippe Myers. He unexpectedly made Toronto’s opening evening roster after spending a lot of the final two seasons within the AHL. Nevertheless, he’s made no impression since doing so. Rostered as a second additional defenseman, he’s solely made one look to this point this season, posting a -1 score in 12:11 of ice time towards the Bruins on Oct. 26. The opposite transfer might be extra advanced. With no different apparent waiver candidates except for Myers, common supervisor Brad Treliving may make his second commerce in as many weeks to open up the opposite area.
Exterior the roster shenanigans, the Leafs are near gaining two legitimately worthwhile depth items. Dewar, 25, has donned the Maple Leaf emblem earlier than, showing in 17 regular-season and 6 playoff video games final season after being acquired from the Wild on commerce deadline day. He was serviceable in a fourth-line function, posting a aim and 4 assists with a -2 score, averaging almost 13 minutes per recreation. He can simply swap between middle and wing, has recorded over 120 hits in his two full NHL seasons, and averaged 2:24 per recreation on the penalty kill for Toronto final season after the commerce, second amongst Leafs forwards behind David Kämpf (2:27).
Dewar filed for wage arbitration final summer time after reaching restricted free company however settled earlier than his listening to, agreeing to a one-year, $1.18M contract to return to the Leafs. He did so two months after receiving shoulder surgical procedure in Could. He’s been skating away from and together with his teammates for nearly a month now as he works his approach again, and it now seems he’s not too lengthy away from making his season debut. The 2018 third-round decide scored a career-high 11 targets in 74 appearances final season, cut up between Minnesota and Toronto.
When Hakanpää comes off LTIR, although, it’ll be the 32-year-old’s Leafs debut. After sitting out the previous couple of months of the Stars’ season with a knee harm, he inked a reported two-year, $3M cope with Toronto instantly after changing into an unrestricted free agent on July 1. However that contract was by no means registered with the league, a narrative that started gaining traction later that month. Hakanpää underwent arthroscopic surgical procedure to handle the knee harm whereas with Dallas however was nonetheless coping with lingering results, which he and the Leafs’ medical workers initially disagreed on easy methods to transfer ahead from. After just a few months of back-and-forth, the 2 sides got here to phrases on a revised one-year, $1.47M contract in mid-September.
A fourth-round decide of the Blues again in 2010, Hakanpää didn’t make his NHL debut till signing with the Geese as a free agent in 2019. After transient stops in Anaheim and Carolina, the 6-foot-6 Hakanpää emerged as a legit shutdown risk in Dallas. Over the previous three seasons, the right-shot defender posted 40 factors (12 G, 28 A) and a +29 score in 226 appearances for the Stars, averaging 18:02 per recreation with a whopping 363 blocks and 668 hits. With Hakanpää on the ice at even power, the Stars managed 46.6% of shot makes an attempt and 47.7% of anticipated targets, with sub-50 numbers to be anticipated given his lack of offensive deployment.
Upon their returns, Dewar will look to unseat Kämpf, Pontus Holmberg or Steven Lorentz for a spot in Toronto’s backside six, whereas Hakanpää will possible look to usurp Simon Benoit or Conor Timmins for a bottom-pairing function.
