The Maple Leafs have put out their lineup for Saturday night’s game against the Canadiens and it will focus largely on the Leafs’ bottom half of their roster and potential Marlies callup pecking order. Below is the roster announced, per Leafs PR.
The @MapleLeafs roster for tonight’s preseason game in Montreal. pic.twitter.com/YYu9Vbc2YH
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) September 28, 2024
The most notable things from this lineup card are who is making their preseason debut and who the preseason frequent flyers are. Based on the list above, it’s safe to say the lines will look something like this tonight in Montreal.
Knies – Holmberg – Robertson
McMann – A. Nylander – Cowan
Abruzzese – Lorentz – Grebenkin
Pare – Quillan – Tverberg
Rifai – Timmins
Benoit – Mattinen
Kokkonen – Myers
Niemela
Hildeby
Akhtyamov
Making their debuts Saturday are Topi Niemela, Nick Abruzzese, Mikko Kokkonen, Cedric Pare, Artur Akhtyamov (assuming he plays) and Ryan Tverberg. This group has largely been assumed to be destined for the Marlies from day one with the exception of Topi Niemela, who while certainly was projected to a Marlie, is a notable prospect that many thought would have received a look at least on par with the attention that Nikita Grebenkin and Easton Cowan have received.
From a skill perspective, prior to the selection of Ben Danford, Niemela seemed to be the Maple Leafs’ top defensive prospect. The drawback with Niemela is his lack of size and despite being a strong positional player who makes sound decisions in his own end, his ability to win puck battles seems to have staggered the Treliving era Leafs’ interest in Topi despite a strong year with the Marlies and encouraging if not outstanding results from the Liiga in Finland.
It seems like the priority has shifted at least at the moment to Noah Chadwick and Cade Webber, along with seeing what the Leafs have in older options like Marshall Rifai and Nicolas Mattinen who fit with the no-nonsense style of defence that Brad Treliving seems to covet.
Hopefully, Saturday’s game is an opportunity for Niemela to rewrite his story which seems to either paint him as an offensive defenceman (two-way defenceman is a more accurate assessment) and move on from his rough preseason performance last season.
It is likely for all of the players making their preseason debut that they will find themselves joining the Marlies shortly but leaving a good impression on the Leafs hockey ops department will certainly be weighing on them.
On the flip side, Craig Berube is certainly doing his due diligence on Easton Cowan. Cowan has dressed in all of the preseason games and it will be interesting to see how he does in a situation where he is more likely to be playing away from the puck than with it given the Canadiens will likely ice more NHLers against this Leafs lineup. The fact that he has been utilized in a number of different roles in the games he’s played makes it unclear what the Leafs’ plan for Easton will be this year and even if that plan is to send him back to junior, they will send him back with the best information possible on him.
In addition to Cowan’s fourth appearance in the preseason, Jacob Quillan, Nikita Grebenkin, Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann, Simon Benoit, Pontus Holmberg and Matthew Knies are all making their third appearances.
The story of Quillan and Grebenkin isn’t likely all that different from Cowan, other than they can safely be sent to the Marlies and recalled on a whim. Neither has made a surefire case for NHL jobs, but Quillan certainly fills a need at centre and Grebenkin has created a lot of excitement around his style of play and as he puts the finishing touches on his game the Leafs will be eager to see what he can do.
The rest are interesting parts of the Leafs roster that Berube still needs to find his best fit for. All of Holmberg, Knies, Robertson, McMann, and Benoit have shown why the are Leafs, it is just a matter of finding their best roster fits and after Saturday’s game it should inform where they’ll start the season.
