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The Toronto Maple Leafs begin their two-game road trip against the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday. It is the second game in the City of Brotherly Love in a week, as Toronto won 6-2 at Wells Fargo Arena last Thursday. The Leafs will be without Mitch Marner for the fourth straight game due to an ankle injury, and will not have defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin in the lineup due to an illness.
Simon Benoit will replace Lyubushkin on the blueline (who was partnered with Jake McCabe on Monday), with TJ Brodie moving back with Morgan Rielly on the top pairing. Ilya Samsonov, who was in goal for the win last week, will get the start for Toronto, which means that Joseph Woll will make the start in Washington on Wednesday.
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An interesting snippet from Chris Johnston’s piece in The Athletic on Tuesday regarding the Leafs roster positioning after the trade deadline. GM Brad Treliving included minor league forward Dmitry Ovchinnikov in the Connor Dewar deal with Minnesota to have two pro contract slots available under the 50 pro contract limit this season, so that the club could sign undrafted free agents from the NCAA or Europe after their college or pro teams seasons end.
Treliving reportedly spent last week scouting NCAA games and confirmed that he had interest in a few of the available college free agents.
“Yeah, we’re talking to some of those,” he said. “That was part of when we did the deal with Connor we added an expiring contract. It was just to give us a little more flexibility, whether we get into the NCAA game or any other (situations) if we add a player.”
One of the more sought-after college players is Quinnipiac forward Collin Graf. The 20-year-old is from the Boston area and has scored more than 20 goals in his sophomore and junior seasons, but has a large number of teams pursuing him.
Another name that could be on the Leafs radar is winger Maxim Tsyplakov. The 25-year-old Moscow native is 6’3”, 190 lb. and finished fourth in KHL scoring with 31 goals. The Athletic’s Corey Pronman says Tsyplakov is a “big, powerful wing who plays a highly physical brand of hockey. He also has strong puck skills, offensive hockey sense and shooting ability”, and projects him as a bottom-six winger.
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