With the Leafs potentially short a defenceman heading into Saturday’s game, they made a roster move to bring up an extra body and send one of their top prospects down to the WHL.
Fraser Minten being sent down is not exactly a surprise given that he was struggling to keep up with the pace in his four-game stint with the team where he went scoreless. While there is an argument that he should have stuck around for the nine-game window, his fate was seemingly sealed after being a healthy scratch for the past three games and Pontus Holmberg playing well on the fourth line.
There is no shame in having him return to the Kamloops Blazers and continue his development after gaining confidence from cracking the Leafs’ opening-night lineup. Expect him to be in contention for a spot on Canada’s roster at the World Juniors later this year and hopefully, he can stick around in the NHL longer next season.
William Lagesson getting called up signals that the Leafs are preparing for Jake McCabe to be absent for tomorrow’s tilt against the Predators and possibly longer. McCabe only played for 10 seconds in last night’s game against the Stars before a supposed pulled muscle on the first shift ended his night prematurely. Although the Leafs’ PR deemed his status as questionable to return, he did not take another shift in that contest.
Going with Lagesson was the right call here as playing Simon Benoit instead would be too risky as has yet to appear in an NHL or AHL game this season and isn’t far removed from experiencing back spasms that derailed his training camp. Should the former suit up in Nashville, this will mark his first game back in the NHL since April 27, 2022, when he was with the Canadiens.
Lagesson has played in five games with the Marlies so far and has amassed an assist in that span.
Stats from Hockey-Reference.com
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