The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled left-winger Trevor Moore from the AHL Toronto Marlies on Thursday morning. With the NHL roster freeze in effect until Friday, December 28th, at 12:01 am, this had to be an emergency recall for Moore’s services.

Understanding the NHL Holiday Roster Freeze

Once the freeze ends, Tyler Ennis (who is out with a broken ankle) can go on the injured reserve, allowing a roster spot to be freed for Moore. That should happen tomorrow. As to why the Leafs have decided to call him up today, it is most likely because the Leafs have a practice/travel day on thursday before their game in Columbus against the Blue Jackets on Friday night.

Between his last time with the Leafs last Sunday and now, the Marlies played one game on Boxing Day at Scotiabank Arena (a 4-1 loss to Belleville) in which Moore was a scratch. Considering he played a 3-in-3 last weekend with the Marlies and Leafs, a nice four-day long break was well deserved for the 24-year-old.

There was confusion yesterday during the Marlies game whether Moore was on the team, or still on the Leafs, since he was a scratch (he’s never a scratch). There was an issue with AHL Transactions yesterday in that they mixed up Moore’s recall and reassignment, and got the two events backwards. So it read that Moore was recalled after getting sent down, despite never being called up to begin with. Nevertheless, this should straighten everything out.

Not long after, the Toronto Marlies announced that they have sent defenseman Alex Gudbranson and forward Scott Pooley back down to the Newfoundland Growlers. The two skaters were called up to the Marlies for a week whilst the Growlers were on their holiday break.

Gudbranson sat for all three games the Marlies played while up, despite the heavy casualties on the back-end. Pooley skated on Boxing Day and put up no stats in the loss.

Both the Marlies and Growlers play on Friday night, but the Growlers have a three-games in four-nights situation this weekend, the Marlies only play on Friday and Monday (New Year’s Eve).

All of Calle Rosen (neck injury), Andreas Borgman (concussion), Timothy Liljegren (high-ankle sprain), and Rasmus Sandin (World Juniors) have been unavailable for the Marlies over the past week or so. The Marlies still have six healthy defenseman on the roster, but the sending down of Gudbranson could mean one of those three injured pivots (likely Rosen or Borgman) might be back in the near future. It would be a big boost to the Marlies if this ends up being the case because the defense core could really use a high-end puck-mover of any kind at this point.

Newfoundland GrowlersRoster ShenanigansToronto Marlies