With the very unwelcome news that Joe Thornton is going to miss “some time” the expectation for today was that the Leafs would make some salary cap moves to open up the room to add replacement players for their injured.
That seems to be happening, but the thing about cap machinations is, sometimes they provide other opportunities as well, like for a player to join practice. Or maybe the practice time the player needs comes first, and that cap usage is just a handy add-on. We don’t know for sure.
#Leafs lines at practice:
Vesey-Brooks*-Marner
Nylander-Tavares-Hyman
Mikheyev-Kerfoot-Simmonds
Barabanov-Engvall-Spezza
Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Sandin-Bogosian
Dermott-Lehtonen
SRS: Anderson, Hutchinson
*presumably a placeholder for Matthews— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) January 21, 2021SRS is a short form for Taxi Squad, and at Leafs practices, the players not in the line rush group often wear a different colour.