Niemelä is a former two-time World Junior player where he won a silver and bronze in consecutive years, as well as a handful of individual awards including top defenseman at the 2021 tournament.ĭefense Cuts: Nolan Dillingham, Matthew Hellickson, Topi Niemelä, Matteo Pietroniro, Marshall Rifai, Jonny Tychonick and William Villeneuve. The former World Junior star for Finland came to North America late last season where he recorded two points in six regular season games with the Marlies, along with five more points in seven playoff games. Toronto Maple Leafs Top Defensive Prospect CutĪmong the seven defenseman cut was top defensive prospect Topi Niemelä. In total, Abruzzese has suited up for the big team 11 times since turning pro at the end of the 2021-22 season and has three points.įorward Cuts: Nick Abruzzese, Joseph Blandisi, Max Ellis, Roni Hirvonen, Braden Kressler, Robert Mastrosimone, Dmitry Ovchinnikov, Jay O’Brien, Neil Shea, Logan Shaw, Tate Singleton, Josiah Slavin, Alex Steeves, Keenan Stuthers, Ryan Tverberg, Ty Voit and Tyler Weiss. The New York native finished third on the Marlies in points last season with 48 in 69 games and also collected a pair of assists in two games with the Maple Leafs. The former fourth round pick of the Maple Leafs will likely be one of the Marlies top players this season and will get a chance with the big club this season if injuries occur. The most notable name of the 17 forwards that were sent to the Toronto Marlies camp was forward Nick Abruzzese.

Prior to the games, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that they had made 27 cuts to their training camp roster. There's also the possibility that William Nylander is traded if he doesn't agree to sign an extension this summer.Monday night the Toronto Maple Leafs will face-off against the Montreal Canadiens with the hometown team dressing an almost full opening night line-up. We don't yet know if the Leafs will make any additional moves in free agency or in the trade market, but with Treliving's comments about wanting to alter his defense corps even after the Klingberg signing, anything is possible.

They also snagged Ryan Reaves and John Klingberg on July 1st to help play important roles for the team, adding some toughness and leadership, as well as more offense from the blueline. The Leafs were able to add some solid pieces this summer in Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi on the 2nd day of free agency. However, after the departure of Kyle Dubas, the team's new GM, Brad Treliving, emphasized the difficulty in finding truly elite players, revealing that he, too, would prefer to keep the core together and work around the edges. Many had also speculated that the team's core would be broken up this summer. I think it's a fair assessment to say that most had assumed that the Leafs would experience some significant changes this summer as a result of yet another early loss, especially after adding 6 players before the deadline, including Ryan O'Reilly, one of the bigger trade deadline targets.

The celebration was short-lived, however, as the Leafs were then beaten in 5 games by the Florida Panthers in round 2. The Leafs were finally able to slay their first round demons this spring, ousting the Tampa Bay Lightning in 6 games to advance to the 2nd round for the first time in 19 years.

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