Currently the Toronto Maple Leafs have five defenseman that you can pencil in with Morgan Rielly, Nikita Zaitsev, Jake Gardiner, Matt Hunwick, and Roman Polak.
Which means there will be an opening on the bottom pairing of the defense for any young player or prospect that wants to take it and one of those prospects that has the potential to force his way into the lineup is 21 year-old Rinat Valiev.
A few comments on Shanahan’s stops at SN590 and TSN1050: He mentioned Rinat Valiev on both among some pretty good prospects.