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Leafs Waive Seth Griffith

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Young forward Seth Griffith has been placed on waivers today by the Toronto Maple Leafs, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. As Johnston adds, with forward Josh Leivo and defenseman Matt Hunwick nearing their respective returns, the Leafs needed to create a spot on the roster and Griffith was the odd-man out.

TSN’s Kristen Shilton suggests the team’s October 24th addition of center Ben Smith from Colorado also helped to make Griffith expendable. Shilton points out that unlike Griffith, Smith kills penalties and excels in the faceoff circle and that might have provided further reasons for the move.

Toronto claimed Griffith off waivers from Boston just a month ago. He saw action in just three of the Leafs first 13 contests failing to register a point. Griffith has appeared in 37 NHL games over parts of three seasons, tallying six goals and five points along with 10 penalty minutes. It’s quite possible another team with room will take a chance on the skilled but unproven Griffith.

Leivo has yet to see action this season but is wrapping up his conditioning assignment and should soon be set to make his 2016-17 season debut. In 12 games with Toronto last season, the 23-year-old left wing scored five goals for the Leafs.

 

Maple Leafs Notes: Bon Jovi, Rielly, Hunwick

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After the Maple Leafs’ dynamic young duo of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were caught singing along to Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On a Prayer” in the midst of the insane brawls all around them, and received a shout out on twitter from the man himself, they were asked today at practice whether they’d heard it from their teammates (via Mark Masters of TSN).

A lot of the guys telling us to focus on the game and stuff. We’re living our dream right now…probably the most important thing is to go out there and have fun.

While the teams were earning 130 PIM around them, Matthews and Marner were each earning more points and continue to dominate the conversation in Toronto. The teenagers have 11 and 10 points respectively through 12 games.

  • Morgan Rielly, the Maple Leafs de facto leader on the blueline is being asked to do even more this season, and he showed it on Saturday with the hit that set off all the fireworks. Now as the current and future number 1 in Toronto, head coach Mike Babcock expects him to take on these responsibilities (via Kristin Shilton of TSN): “We need him to be a real high-end guy in this league and I think him and (Nikita) Zaitsev have a chance to be a real good pair. Dion (Phaneuf) was for a long time and took a lot of heat for a lot of kids..now (Rielly)’s at a point in his career, he’s got to be that guy for us.”
  • Also from Masters, Matt Hunwick returned to practice today and is apparently “just around the corner” for his return to the lineup. Hunwick was placed on injured reserve a week ago with a lower-body injury. The 31-year old will have a good chance to get back into the lineup right away, as Martin Marincin has struggled in the early going.

Snapshots: All-Star Ballot, Zacha, Hunwick, Korpisalo

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The NHL is expected to revise its eligibility criteria for the All-Star ballot, writes Ken Campbell of The Hockey News.  There was plenty of debate over the controversial push made to get enforcer John Scott into the game and was further fueled by the fact that he played while suiting up with the AHL’s St. John’s IceCaps (minor league affiliate of Montreal) and was not on an NHL roster.

In particular, the league plans to add the criterion that to be eligible to participate, the player must be a ‘bona fide NHL player’.  While there is some ambiguity as to what that exactly is intended to mean, at the very least it would suggest that someone suiting up in the minor leagues like Scott was last year would not be eligible to play.  There could also be minimums for games played, ice time, etc to further reduce the likelihood of another write-in campaign like Scott’s was last year or in the past with defenseman Rory Fitzpatrick.

As it turned out, there was a happy ending to Scott’s controversial appearance at All-Star Weekend as he scored twice and was voted as the MVP.  The whole adventure resulted in a screenplay being written to chronicle the event but it would appear that something like that won’t be permitted to happen again with this planned change.

The official ballot should be released sometime in mid-November.

Elsewhere around the league:

  • The New Jersey Devils are expected to keep center Pavel Zacha through the first of two key deadlines for junior aged players, Andrew Gross of Fire and Ice reports. The 19 year old has played in eight games so far this season while recording three assists.  He has seen his ice time jump in recent games, playing over 15 minutes in each of his last four outings.  Once he plays in his tenth game, he will burn the first year of his entry-level contract.  The next key deadline for Zacha will be the 40 game mark – if he is on New Jersey’s roster for 40 games, he will accrue one season towards unrestricted free agency.
  • Toronto has placed defenseman Matt Hunwick on injured reserve with a lower body injury according to James Mirtle of the Globe and Mail (Twitter link). Hunwick has missed the last three games and it’s likely that his IR stint will be backdated retroactive to his last game played on October 25th.  The 31 year old has seen his role drop considerably in the early going this season; his average ice time (16:59) is down by over five and a half minutes per game compared to last season (22:34).
  • Columbus activated goaltender Joonas Korpisalo off of season-opening injured reserve and have assigned him to their AHL affiliate in Cleveland, the team announced. Korpisalo has been out since the start of the season with a groin injury.  He led the team in wins, GAA, and SV% last season after getting into 31 games with the Blue Jackets.  Once he’s back in game shape, he’ll try to make a push to supplant Curtis McElhinney as the backup to Sergei Bobrovsky.

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