The Leafs are coming off a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday night and hope to turn that win into a streak.
Nicholas Robertson played just over 2 minutes before leaving the game due to a knee injury.
In order to fill that roster spot and maintain cap space the team was forced to waive Aaron Dell and Jason Spezza. As expected, they lost Dell to waivers, but Jason Spezza passed through unclaimed. It may have something to do with this:
There was always the chance that a team could have picked Spezza up, simply to watch him retire and for no other reason than to hurt the Leafs roster. Lucky for us, Jason has garnered respect around the league and no GM wanted to end his career like that.
To fill the vacant roster spot the Leafs recalled rookie defender, Mikko Lehtonen. This will be Lehtonens NHL debut, so here’s hoping he has a great game and gets off on the right foot in the NHL.
Sheldon Keefe on Mikko Lehtonen: "We wanted to give him last week to give him a chance to watch the games and be in more meetings and get a better feel for things. Here now, we don't want too much time to elapse before he gets in a game."
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) January 18, 2021
Coach Keefe will dress 11 forwards and 7 defenders, so line juggling will be interesting to see.
Enjoy the game!! GO LEAFS GO!!