The Toronto Maple Leafs practiced on Friday in advance of traveling to Chicago to face the young Blackhawks on Saturday night. The club placed team captain Auston Matthews on injured reserve, retroactive to November 11th, which rules him out for the game at the United Center and Tuesday night’s contest against the St.Louis Blues.
Winger Easton Cowan was recalled from the AHL Marlies, and skated alongside Nicolas Roy and Sammy Blais at the Ford Performance Centre. The 20-year-old played only a pair of games with the Marlies after playing 10 games with the Leafs and scoring his first NHL goal.
The club also demoted Artur Akhtyamov and activated goalie Joseph Woll from LTIR. The 26-year-old played in two AHL games, and started for the Marlies in a 3-2 overtime loss to Grand Rapids on Wednesday. With Dennis Hildeby having played in four straight games, it is probable that Woll sees his first action in Chicago.
“I feel great (and) ready to go,” Woll said. “It’s been a bit of a weird start to the season, like we’ve talked about before. I’m just really happy to be here and be back. I got to play a game and a half with the Marlies, and I’m just pumped to get going.”
Both Matthew Knies and Brandon Carlo sat out due to maintenance, but are expected to play against the Hawks.
There have been persistent rumors that the Leafs are pursuing Calgary Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson to help address their defensive issues. The 29-year-old blueliner is in the final year of his contract and is the biggest target of the rental defenseman class before the trade deadline, but would be extremely expensive to acquire because of that.
This rumor feels like going down memory lane for Toronto GM Brad Treliving, who was interested in acquiring current Leaf Chris Tanev and Toronto nemesis Nikita Zadorov from the Flames, but lost out on the bidding war to Dallas and Vancouver two years ago, but eventually got Tanev in free agency. There were indications that Calgary GM Craig Conroy was asking for a different price from his former boss than from other clubs for both blueliners and there is no reason to think anything has changed.
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