Spezza and Dell placed on waivers as Leafs look to revamp roster
For a day off, the Toronto Maple Leafs roster was certainly in a state of flux.
While the club waited Sunday for an update on forward Nick robertson’s knee injury — coach Sheldon Keefe was not hopeful of a quick return after the rookie was hurt Saturday in Ottawa — two veterans were placed on waivers.
A day after Keefe said he liked the insurance of having three goaltenders, the club risked losing one by placing Aaron dell on waivers along with veteran forward Jason Spezza.
Both players will find out if they clear at noon on Monday and with unforeseen circumstances leading to a shortage of stoppers around the league, dell could be targeted. While he had backed up Jack Campbell on Saturday to allow Frederik Andersen to stay off the ice completely in preparation to face the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night, the waiver moves would allow the Leafs more flexibility with the reserves in the wake of robertson’s injury.
Toronto, which has been caught without enough experienced backups in recent years, has a fourth goalie under contract, Michael Hutchinson.
Spezza, 37, has played in all three games to date, and despite a season low ice time of just under seven minutes on Saturday, he won all 10 faceoffs. That will get him some notice around the league, but the father of four had made his intention to retire in his native Toronto if he hadn’t re-signed here in the off-season and might well refuse if claimed.
How ironic the first significant injury to the Leafs is a member of Keefe’s ‘Stay ready Squad.’
The 19-year-old robertson, in his regular season debut as a Leaf, lasted two minutes, 20 seconds before his knee was pinned awkwardly to the boards by Ottawa’s drake Batherson.
Keefe had begun calling the extras the Leafs carry beyond their 21-man roster as ‘The Stay ready Squad,’ a term borrowed from Brooklyn Nets coach Steve Nash and a more inclusive sounding name than Taxi Squad.
While the Leafs had Sunday off from practice, they’ll have to do some juggling with the roster Emergency Exemption plan, part of the NHL rules that owners and players created around the restart of this season.
They can swap out robertson’s entry level salary for Alexander Barabanov (who was assigned to the taxi squad when robertson was recalled) or those Leafs hoping to play their first game, forwards Travis Boyd, Adam Brooks or defencemen rasmus Sandin or Mikko Lehtonen, should Keefe elect to dress seven blueliners.