Dubas opts for "young defencemen" over trade to combat Leafs' injuries
While it’s not a fully fledged crisis, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been getting hit with a bit of an injury bug these days.
The Leafs currently have defencemen Jake Muzzin and TJ Brodie on the injured reserve, the former of which is out until at least February with a spine injury.
Things aren’t much better in net.
Toronto is expecting the return of goaltender Matt Murray tonight for the first time in a month, and just his second start with the Leafs, while they’re also dealing with Ilya Samsonov’s week-to-week knee injury.
But Leafs GM Kyle Dubas isn’t rushing to the trade market to fix the team’s roster holes.
In fact, Dubas is pointing to two defencemen — young defencemen, per his words — to pick up an elevated role in the team’s lineup. At a press conference on Monday, Dubas pointed to 22-year-old Rasmus Sandin and 23-year-old Timothy Liljegren as players he’s looking to see more of — both their ice time and performance-wise — with Brodie and Muzzin out.
“[We want] to see how much they can handle and whether they can, with the increased opportunity, continue to elevate themselves as they each have in their respective starts to their careers with us,” Dubas said.
The pair is currently playing together on the Leafs’ third unit, with Morgan Rielly and Jordie Benn on the top pair while Mark Giordano and Justin Holl fill up the second line. But it’s expected that Liljegren and Sandin might pick up a few extra shifts here and there to ease the veterans’ load and pitch in on the Leafs’ special teams.
After a training camp injury, Liljegren has played just five games this season, scoring two goals in an average of 17:20 ice time. Sandin’s played in 16 games, picking up four assists in an average of 16:56 of ice time.
“Step two will be identifying whether — even if they elevate themselves — whether it’s going to be enough to help us accomplish what we want to accomplish and then evaluate the trade market and go from there,” Dubas said. [We’re staying the] usual course but not in any real hurry to fill it because we want to really see what these guys bring.”
Toronto faces off against Pittsburgh at 7 pm tonight.
No pressure, kids, but your GM is keeping a close eye on you.
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