Monday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs made three roster moves to start the week which was highlighted by Bobby McMann being sent back to the Marlies.
Joining McMann to depart from the Toronto Maple Leafs is goaltender Martin Jones and defenseman Maxime Lajoie.
The Maple Leafs don’t play again until Thursday night, which would be a full week off between games for McMann who did not dress Saturday night for the contest against the Boston Bruins.
The move for McMann could be more to get him some game action as the Toronto Marlies are playing host to the Grand Rapids Griffins Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
Toronto Maple Leafs Make 3 Minor Roster Moves
The Wainwright, Alberta native has garnered a lot of fan support as the 27-year old had scored 45 goals in his last two seasons over a span of 91 games with the Marlies and has made a noticeable difference on the Maple Leafs fourth line.
McMann has helped give stability to that bottom line with Noah Gregor and David Kämpf as coach Sheldon Keefe has been able to rely on the trio in more situations than with Ryan Reaves.
Reaves who has been on for 12 goals against, while being on the ice for just two Leafs goals has been slowly seeing his role diminish. The career enforcer saw just two shifts after the first period on Saturday night against the Bruins.
Many may not have even known that Lajoie was on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster as he had bounced back and forth four times in the last five days between the NHL and AHL teams. The 26-year old Quebec native has played in just one game where he saw less than five minutes earlier in the season with the Maple Leafs. He has dressed in 14 games with the Marlies and has five assists.
Finally, Jones was recalled on Saturday due to Ilya Samsonov feeling under the weather and the move could be for one of two reasons. Either Samsonov is feeling healthy and back to normal, or Jones will get the start for the Marlies on Tuesday night and then be recalled after the game. It is more likely that the Russian goalie is back to game level health.
The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Jones this past off-season to a one-way contract to serve as the third string goalie as a better insurance plan than in years past and in case one of the teams top two goalies got injured. Both Samsonov and Joseph Woll have had battles against the injured list throughout their career; and luckily so far, both have been able to avoid any mishaps.