Good morning, and happy Monday. There was literally no news over the weekend after our coverage of the first preseason games, so here’s a quick discussion on the training camp roster and when/where cuts might happen.

Here is the current training camp roster, broken down by contract type and by position. This list doesn’t include all players in the Leafs organization as many prospects like Roni Hirvonen and Topi Niemelä have already been sent back to their other clubs, nor does this list include injured players like Timothy Liljegren, Pierre Engvall, Mikhail Abramov, and Joseph Woll. I’m keeping the injured players separate for simplicity, even though they can join the roster when they’re healthy.

Waivers Required

F: Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Alex Kerfoot, Calle Järnkrok, Michael Bunting, David Kämpf, Nicolas Aubé-Kubel, Wayne Simmonds, Kyle Clifford, Joey Anderson, Adam Gaudette, Denis Malgin (14)
D: Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Justin Holl, Mark Giordano, Carl Dahlström, Jordie Benn, Victor Mete, Mac Hollowell (9)
G: Matt Murray, Ilya Samsonov (2)

Waivers Exempt

F: Nick Robertson, Nick Abruzzese, Alex Steeves, Pontus Holmberg, Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Max Ellis, Curtis Douglas, Pavel Gogolev, Bobby McMann (9)
D: Filip Král, Mikko Kokkonen, William Villeneuve, Axel Rindell (4)
G: Erik Källgren (1)

PTOs

F: Zach Aston-Reese (1)
G: Dylan Ferguson (1)

AHL Contract Invitees

F: Joseph Blandisi, Logan Shaw, Graham Slaggert (3)
D: Noel Hoefenmayer, Tommy Miller, Marshall Rifai (3)
G: Dryden McKay, Keith Petruzzelli (2)

Junior Eligible

F: Fraser Minten (1)

Waivers doesn’t open until 12 days before the NHL season begins, which is this Friday. That’s the soonest we’ll see some players in the top group get sent down (your Hollowells and Metes).

The Toronto Marlies don’t begin their preseason until October 7th, with the likely start of camp a few days before that (maybe the 3rd which is next Monday?). Meaning at the moment, none of the AHL invitees or waivers exempt Marlies have a place to go. Might as well have them skating together as the second group in a defacto training camp.

That leaves poor little Fraser Minten. His team, the Kamloops Blazers, have already started their WHL regular season on Friday. So after getting a week with the team and his first taste of NHL action in the preseason, it seems fitting to send him back to his team and hope he has a kick-ass season.

That said, I can see the Leafs carrying Minten on for a little longer since his team doesn’t play again until October 7th. I don’t think another week and maybe one more preseason game can hurt him. But we’ll see what the decision is. Maybe someone in the comments is willing to check flight details from Toronto to Kamloops (Google Flights say you’ll need a stopover in Calgary).

Okay, I lied earlier. There is some news from yesterday.

And finally, Happy Birthday, Mom!

From The Branches