Leafs set to use their 10th defenceman of the season already
The Toronto Maple Leafs are cycling through defencemen in the first seven weeks of the season.
Hitting the ice for the first time in North America for a practice Tuesday after playing a pair of games in Sweden, defenceman Conor Timmins was featured on the team’s third pair.
Yet to play this season while dealing with a lower-body injury, Timmins skated today alongside William Lagesson. And once Timmins steps on the ice in a regular season game, he’ll be the 10th defenceman Toronto has used so far this season.
For comparison’s sake, they used 15 in the 2022-23 season, 12 in 2021-22, and 10 in all of the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 campaign.
Here’s how the team’s lineup looked today at practice, courtesy of TSN’s Mask Masters.
Forwards
- Matthew Knies – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
- Tyler Bertuzzi – John Tavares – William Nylander
- Nick Robertson – Max Domi – Calle Jarnkrok
- Bobby McMann – David Kampf – Noah Gregor
- Ryan Reaves
Defencemen
- Morgan Rielly – TJ Brodie
- Mark Giordano – Jake McCabe
- William Lagesson – Conor Timmins
- Simon Benoit
Goalies
- Ilya Samsonov
- Joseph Woll
Notably absent was John Klingberg, who missed each of Toronto’s last two games with a hip injury.
“There’s no update on him other than to say he’s continuing to work through things,” Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said in relation to Klingberg. “We’ll have something for you when something’s changed. At this point, there is no change in his status.”
The Leafs next play Friday when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks for a 2 pm ET puck drop, to coincide with the day after American Thanksgiving.
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