Michael Hutchinson, who has started three games in the AHL this year with a great deal of success (.942 save %), has been recalled, and Kasimir Kaskisuo has been sent back to the AHL.

Kaskisuo was not on the roster long enough to require waivers to return to the AHL. He played in one game, the disastrous loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins where the team performed poorly (massive understatement), and his own contribution wasn’t positive.

This comes after this interesting bit from today’s practice:

This is an on-going choice by the Leafs to limit Frederik Andersen’s work in practice. His workload in games has been very high, and previously we would have expected to see him start the next two games on the road, and the backup to play on Sunday’s second half of a back to back.  However, things have changed on the coaching front, but also that second half game is the home game this time. There’s good arguments to flip the assignments and have Hutchinson play the Saturday game in Buffalo, if the goal is to maximize the chances of winning the home game with Andersen in net.

The option remains open, of course, to play Hutchinson against the Detroit Red Wings, while having the team (one hopes) play well in front of him to see if that can help sort out the situation.

We’ll update you when we know the team’s plans.

Toronto Marlies