Toronto Maple Leafs Waive Orr, McLaren, Holzer and Cut Nylander

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have finally cut ties with Randy Carlyle's obsession with dressing useless forwards that do not provide any value to the team as Colton Orr and Frazer McLaren were both placed on waivers along with Korbinian Holzer. William Nylander was the other casualty as he will be re-assigned to either the Marlies or to Sweden.

Update: William Nylander will return to Sweden to play with MODO.

Rosters are obviously fluid during the early part of the season as training camp injuries open holes. On defence, Cody Franson's leg injury is likely why Stuart Percy is staying up rather than Holzer as the former will actually play. Once Franson is back, I'd expect Percy to go back down to the Marlies and Holzer possibly come up so that he can collect a paycheque in the pressbox. However, that'll obviously depend on how Percy plays (if Franson isn't ready) and how the forwards shake out as well. There is some flexibility up front to deal with roster limits. Holzer has to pass through waivers but much like his counterparts up front, it doesn't matter if he gets picked up but I doubt any team is champing at the bit to add a 7th defenceman.

HodORR and FML being cut means that the Leafs will finally have to ice twelve NHL calibre forwards. Whether this was Randy Carlyle's decision or not will likely determine how the ice time will be split amongst the four lines but either way this is a good development. Either Carlyle has actually learned something (possible) or he was overruled by someone above him (also possible) but the end result is that at least in theory the Leafs will have addressed their problem of only icing 10 players. The effect of that old style of thinking manifested in many issues throughout the year but this will hopefully address some of them.

David Booth is on LTIR so that opened up an extra spot for his temporary replacement. There are currently 15 forwards and Darren Dreger recently said that the Leafs expected to run with maybe 21 or 22 bodies rather than 23. That's in part because of cap pressures but also in an attempt to save as much space as possible. As Franson and Booth's injuries clear up, the Leafs will trim down some more.

Update: As expected, Josh Leivo will probably be headed down to the Marlies to help get down to 22 bodies

Nonis said #Leafs want to get down to 22 players for Wednesday. That likely means Josh Leivo (bruised foot) returns to the Marlies.
— Michael Traikos (@Michael_Traikos) October 6, 2014

In net, there were no surprises as both Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer were slotted in in pen once Reimer signed his extension. The full roster as of now is below: