Report: Maple Leafs will lose Brendan Leipsic to Vegas Golden Knights
According to a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Toronto Maple Leafs will lose Brendan Leipsic to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.
Given who was on the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ exposure list, I don’t think this is much of a surprise, but according to a report from TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Leafs will lose Brendan Leipsic to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in the expansion draft.
Rumblings the Toronto Maple Leafs will lose Brendan Leipsic in the expansion draft.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 21, 2017
The Vegas roster is slowly starting to leak out, but we will not officially know who is on their roster until the NHL Awards show on Wednesday night. In the meantime, though, it sounds like you can add Leispic to the Golden Knights’ roster.
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Once the Leafs decided to protect Matt Martin and Josh Leivo, that left Leipsic, Kerby Rychel and Martin Marincin exposed, and many thought the writing was on the wall for either Leipsic or Rychel. Since Leipsic is younger than Rychel, and arguably has more upside, it makes sense why Vegas would opt to choose him.
Leipsic was brought into the Leafs organization back in 2015 when the team traded Cody Franson to the Nashville Predators. The 23-year-old forward has spent the majority of his last three seasons playing with the Toronto Marlies and is nearly a point-per-game player in the AHL during that time, compiling 124 points in 141 games.
Despite his strong play in the AHL, Leipsic never really got a chance with the Leafs and it seemed unlikely he would crack their roster this upcoming season because of how deep the team is along the wings.
However, some Toronto fans were upset the team exposed Leipsic over fourth line forward/”team Dad” Matt Martin. The reasoning behind this notion was why would Vegas take on Martin and his $2.5 million AAV contract? Would they not value younger prospects instead?
There is no right or wrong answer to this debate, but it’s clear the Leafs value what Martin brings to the team and they didn’t see a future for Leipsic in Toronto and were comfortable losing him in the expansion draft, and, by the sounds of it, that’s exactly what has transpired.
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What do you think about the Toronto Maple Leafs reportedly losing Brendan Leipsic to the Vegas Golden Knights? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.