The waiver period for Martin Marincin has expired and he has cleared waivers.  The assumption is he will be assigned to the Marlies where he joins a large corps of defenders, numbering 10 at the moment, with the potential for some more transfers to the Solar Bears to thin that down.

While in the AHL, $225,000 of Marincin’s cap hit still counts for the Leafs.  If the Leafs have firmly decided he isn’t part of their regular lineup, they might entertain a trade.  That might be difficult to accomplish, but now that he’s cleared waivers, he’s easier to move.

With reports that Calle Rosen was at Leafs practice today, the replacement on the roster seems obvious.

Much has been made of Marincin’s defensive ability in certain specific areas.  However, the payment for that is deficiencies in other aspects of his defensive game and a nearly invisible effect on scoring. He has 25 points in 175 NHL games and 45 points in 128 AHL games.  Thirty of his AHL points came in the lockout year where he played half the season with the Oilers’ top stars.

If Andreas Borgman or Rosen, or a platoon of the two can handle the NHL at least as well as Marincin and actually add some offence, it sounds like a trade-up to me. Rosen was impressive in training camp at times. At others, there were obvious holes in his game.  The same is true of Borgman, who made the opening night roster and had some rookie moments interspersed with some good play.

Mike Babcock said more than once he wanted both men on his roster. But it seems unlikely that is the sole reason for the waiving of Marincin.  They could have swapped Borgman and Rosen back and forth all season long if Babcock just wanted to have access to both.  This feels like the Leafs made their choice and were not very bothered by the risk of losing Marincin.

Roman Polak was also at practice today, and will likely continue to be, so don’t think that situation is over.  He is no longer on a PTO, however, and cannot play in a game.