The Toronto Maple Leafs have made another small adjustment to their blue line, sending defenseman Cole McWard back to the Toronto Marlies after a short stint with the big club.
McWard never got into a game during the recall, and with Chris Tanev back in the lineup, Toronto no longer needed to keep that extra body on defense. The move comes as the Leafs begin to get healthier after an early stretch that left the roster in a messy spot. Tanev has returned, John Tavares is working toward coming back, and Dakota Joshua has already made his season debut after missing the start of the year.
Toronto had brought up both Dakota Mermis and McWard to help patch things together on the back end, but once Tanev was available again, the numbers no longer worked in McWard’s favor.
For now, he heads back to the Marlies, where he has three assists in five games this season. McWard, 25, has nine career NHL games and one goal, and he was brought in primarily as insurance for the Marlies. He signed a two-year, $1.75M contract with the team this summer.
Whether he gets another look from Toronto this season is unclear. The organization has other options in the system, including Ben Danford and Vinny Borgesi, who could also be in line for a chance at some point.
Danford has three assists in 10 games, along with a plus-3 rating and 10 PIM, including a fight. Borgesi has been even more productive, putting up eight points in eight games and ranking third on the Marlies with seven assists.
If the Maple Leafs are looking for more stability and shutdown ability, Danford would make sense, though contract space would have to be cleared for him. The same issue applies to Borgesi, and those tagging rules are still getting in the way of Toronto fully exploring those options.
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Maple Leafs Make A Risky Lineup Gamble Before A Key Test
With a key test against the Utah Mammoth on deck, Jim Hiller is trying a different look in the Maple Leafs lineup, one that trades some finesse for a little more muscle. Gavin McKenna has been pushed down to the third line, while Dakota Joshua gets a chance in a more prominent role, a tweak aimed at giving Torontos second line more size and physicality as the game stakes rise.
The gamble is obvious for a team trying to find the right balance. Joshua has not played much this season, so there is some uncertainty baked into the move, and McKennas offensive influence figures to be reduced at even strength from a lower line. Even so, he is still expected to keep his power-play duties, which gives Toronto a way to preserve some of his impact while Hiller experiments with the rest of the forward group. [Read more 🡒]
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What stands out most is the kind of save Toronto has been waiting to see more regularly. The Leafs have long valued a goalie who can steal a shift, settle a shaky sequence and erase a mistake at the exact moment it threatens to swing the game, the way Grant Fuhr built his reputation on timely stops. For a team chasing consistency, that trait matters as much as anything else Bobrovsky brings. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Turnover Problem Puts Hillers Plan Under The Spotlight
The Maple Leafs are spending part of their pregame conversation on the details around the crease, with Jim Hiller laying out the thinking behind the goaltending plan and the way the club has handled Anthony Stolarz in the lead-up to the rematch against Utah. Hiller also pointed to Sergei Bobrovskys professionalism and routine, underscoring that Torontos scheduling and lineup choices have been handled with an eye toward keeping everyone prepared for the next step.
Beyond the goalie picture, the bigger issue remains the one that has followed the Leafs into this matchup: turnovers. Hiller said the team has to clean that up if it wants a better result, and he also touched on Easton Cowans return to the top line as part of the broader lineup picture. It leaves Toronto with a familiar mix of urgency and uncertainty, with the details of how the night unfolds still to be sorted out. [Read more 🡒]