Leafs hoping to make training camp "uncomfortable" for bubble players
Don’t avert your eyes: the Toronto Maple Leafs are getting ready for another NHL hockey season.
With training camps opening next week and the preseason getting started on September 22, it’s almost time to watch the blue-and-white suit up once again.
But after winning just one playoff series since 2004 and having suffered seven first-round playoff losses in the last eight years, the urgency level appears high for the world’s most valuable hockey franchise.
On today’s episode of 32 Thoughts, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman offered his opinions on what Leafs general manager Brad Treliving and Craig Berube could be doing come training camp to feed internal battles for roster spots.
“I don’t think they’re afraid of letting some players who would look at this and think, ‘Am I on the bubble here? Be a little bit uncomfortable,” Friedman said. “I don’t think they’re afraid of that. I think they want the competition. I think they want to see who it drives. And it wouldn’t surprise me [for them to run a competitive training camp]… You don’t have to have your roster set until the day before the season begins. So it wouldn’t shock me in the least. Let this play out a little bit. And I think that is their plan.”
Toronto enters training camp with at least eight NHL-ready defencemen, including the recently signed Jani Hakanpaa, Connor Timmins, and Simon Benoit, all competing to crack the final roster. Up front, one of the big stories is centred around Nick Robertson, who signed a one-year deal with Toronto but could still be on the move in the coming weeks.
“The options [for Robertson] were limited… It didn’t benefit him to sit out,” Friedman added. “And … this as a guy who’s really stubborn; like I am a really annoyingly stubborn human being. So I get where Robertson’s coming from, but sometimes you just have to take the knee and concede defeat.”
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