The Leafs are currently facing a lot of interesting roster decisions, and although some of them may be resolved via trades or buyouts, it's always good to know which players are exempt from waivers, because waiver restrictions often determine more of what a team looks like than actual talent/prospective talent.

The website Cap Friendly has a great tool that lets you look up which players are still currently exempt from waivers, but it doesn't tell you when they will have to go through them. For your reference, I've gone through each player the Leafs currently have under contract to see which ones remain exempt. The list is as follows:

Player

Age at signing

NHL GP

Waiver exempt for

Games remaining

Auston Matthews

19**

0

4 years/ 160 GP*

160

William Nylander

18

22

2 years/ 160 GP*

138

Tobias Lindberg

20

6

2 years/ 160 GP

164

Nikita Zaitsev

24

0

2 years/ 60 GP

60

Trevor Moore

21

0

3 years/ 80 GP

80

Kasimir Kaskisuo

22

0

4 years / 60 GP

60

Zach Hyman

23

16

3 years/ 60 GP

44

Mitch Marner

18

0

4 years/ 160 GP*

160

Travis Dermott

18

0

4 years/ 160 GP*

160

Frederik Gauthier

18

7

2 years/ 160 GP*

153

Kerby Rychel

18

37

2 years/ 160 GP*

123

Kasperi Kapanen

18

9

3 years/ 160 GP*

151

Rinat Valiev

18

10

3 years/ 160 GP*

150

Andreas Johnson

21**

0

3 years/ 80 GP

80

Justin Holl

24***

0

2 years/ 60 GP

60

Nikita Soshnikov

22**

11

2 years/ 70 GP

59

Viktor Loov

20

4

1 year/ 160 GP

156

Connor Brown

19

7

1 year/ 160 GP*

153

Andrew Nielsen

18

0

4 years/ 160 GP*

160

Dmytro Timashov

18

0

4 years/ 160 GP*

160

Antoine Bibeau

19

0

3 years/ 80 GP

80

Brendan Leipsic

19

6

1 year/ 160 GP

154

Garret Sparks

20

17

1 year/ 80 GP

66

* If a skater signs his first NHL contract at 18, he gets 5 years of waiver exemption until he plays 11 NHL games, at which point the number of years will be reduced to 3.

** Players with late birthdays are considered to be the age that they turn before the end of the calendar year (see quoted text below).

***Justin Holl is only under contract for one season, so he will still be waiver exempt even after the Leafs have relinquished his rights.

The main place in the NHL's CBA you have to look at to figure out waivers exemptions is the following table:

Also worth noting is that a player's age is determined by the following:

Age is defined by the following:

  • If a player turns 18 between January 1 and September 15 on the year of the entry draft, they are considered 18
  • If a player turns 19 before December 31 of the year on the calendar year of the entry draft, they are considered 19
  • If a player turns 20 before December 31 of the year on the calendar year of the entry draft, they are considered 20, and so on.

    • The Takeaway

    There are only a handful of players on this list who are likely to lose their waiver exemption status this coming season, but it's worth taking note of which ones.

    Nikita Zaitsev - Assuming he stays healthy and isn't terrible, he'll be eligible for waivers this season. That is, he'll have to go through waivers after he plays 60 games.

    Zach Hyman - It's hard to see how the Leafs will manage to fit him into the opening day lineup, but after 44 more games, he'll have to go through waivers.

    Nikita Soshnikov - Similar to Hyman, it's hard to see how he fits in on the Leafs' roster without some trades being made, but if he finds himself in a Leaf uniform for 59 games this season, he'll need to go through waivers as well.

    Each of Viktor Loov, Connor Brown, Brendan Leipsic, and Garret Sparks will require waivers after this season, but they're fine for the moment. This is important information because it makes this an important year for each of those players to prove that they're worth something to the Leafs as an organization.

    Notable Omissions

    Connor Carrick, Frank Corrado, Byron Froese, and Josh Leivo are no longer waiver exempt. These players either have to start with the Leafs or go through waivers to get to the Marlies. In fact, this is exactly how the Leafs managed to acquire Corrado in the first place.

    Interestingly, Froese actually signed an ELC back in 2011 with the Chicago Blackhawks, but General Fanager doesn't list it. Froese is definitely no longer waiver exempt. Glove tap to Katya for noticing that one.

    This Is How It Works