Ahead of Tuesday’s Game 5 against the Ottawa Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs called up 14 players from the AHL’s Toronto Marlies to their roster.
Alex Steeves, Jacob Quillan, Nicholas Abruzzese, Reese Johnson, Alex Nylander and Roni Hirvonen were among the forwards, Matt Benning, Cade Webber, Topi Niemela, William Villeneuve, Mikko Kokkonen and Marshall Rifai round out the defenders, while Matt Murray and Dennis Hildeby were the goaltenders called up.
Hildeby is particularly interesting, as he participated in Tuesday’s morning skate. Anthony Stolarz will start Game 5 for the Maple Leafs, with Joseph Woll serving as the backup. Hildeby started six games for the Maple Leafs, posting a 3-3-0 record with an .878 save percentage this season.
There are no limits to the playoff roster, as long as it remains cap compliant, and this is just an additional measure for the Maple Leafs, who are looking to close out their first-round series with a victory Tuesday. Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube has been adamant that he’s not making any lineup changes, sticking with a winning formula that carried the team through the final stages of the regular season.
“It’s not a knock against him at all, it’s just the way things are looking and going,” Berube said Tuesday morning, when asked about the possibility of David Kampf entering the lineup. “That’s why I’ve stuck with what I’ve stuck with. He’s an important part of the team for sure, and he has been all year. It’s hard for those guys not to play, I get it, but they’ve been very good team-first guys.”
Steeves, Quillan, Nylander, Hildeby, Murray are among the Marlies callups who received some playing time with the Maple Leafs this season.
In any event, this is just an additional measure for the Maple Leafs and it appears highly unlikely any of these players enter the lineup shortly, with Kampf, Nick Robertson, Philippe Myers, Dakota Mermis and Jani Hakanpaa all looking on the outside in as the playoffs march forward.
