Maple Leafs opening day roster is set

The injury to Ilya Mikheyev staved off a few hard decisions.

This is the current roster with cap hits using the Cap Friendly Armchair GM tool. Auston Matthews may never technically be on IR because they don’t need the roster room, but it was a handy place to stash him.

Cap Friendly

With Adam Brooks lost to the Montréal Canadiens on waivers and Ilya Mikheyev out eight weeks and able to go on LTIR, there only needed to be one cut made today to make the roster fit. The choice was a forward, Kirill Semyonov or a defenceman, Timothy Liljegren. Both are waivers exempt and have a very similar cap hit.

The Leafs now have the unexpected opportunity to play Liljegren for some games over the next eight weeks, and they also have the ability to swap him for Semyonov with no waivers implications, should they need a forward. They don’t have to do anything at all, barring injuries between now and Mikheyev’s return.

The Leafs had some training camp injuries to account for beyond Matthews and Mikheyev, and there has not yet been any word on final cap numbers, but for now, we know who is on this roster for the next few weeks. We’ll update you when we have the absolutely final information.