In addition to the first warm-up appearances for Auston Matthews’ line, Morgan Rielly and Connor Brown, tonight marks the unofficial debuts of Ron Hainsey and Dominic Moore in a Leaf sweater. There are also plenty of players on the bubble in action tonight.
The obvious battles to follow during exhibition primers are for the bottom-pairing left defence spot — currently between Calle Rosen, Travis Dermott and Martin Marincin — and the 12th forward spot, which is currently a contest between Josh Leivo (waiver eligible), Nikita Soshnikov (waiver exempt for three more NHL games), Eric Fehr, and Kasperi Kapanen (exempt).