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Toronto Maple Leafs: Who They Should Protect and Expose in the Expansion Draft

By James Reeve

Jan 26, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock (R) looks on from behind the bench against the Philadelphia Flyers during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 26, 2017; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock (R) looks on from behind the bench against the Philadelphia Flyers during the third period at Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports /
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Expansion
Jan 21, 2017; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin (15) shoots the puck against the Ottawa Senators at the Air Canada Centre. Ottawa defeated Toronto 3-2 in an overtime shoot out. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /

WHO TO EXPOSE

A lot of players that feature on this list are obvious.

Joffrey Lupul will likely never pull on a Leafs jersey again and currently has the largest contract of ANY player for the blue and white.

Brooks Laich, Milan Michalek and Colin Greening have spent the season in the AHL and are all UFAs at the end of this season – with none of them being retained by the Leafs.

Eric Fehr has a contract through next season, but is an experienced player who could fill out Vegas’ roster at a reasonable $2 million cap hit.

Ben Smith has been replaced by Boyle and the Leafs are likely to keep the former Tampa man around, leaving Smith to fight with Leafs prospect Frederik Gauthier for a depth position on the team.

Then come the young, promising AHL players that could very well be claimed by the 31st franchise.

Seth Griffith, Kerby Rychel and Brendan Leipsic all have potential at NHL level, but none of them have held down a regular place on the team.

If Vegas are looking to build a roster that can develop well in a couple of years, one of those players could be appealing to them.

Matt Martin is the only regular Leafs forward that could find himself being exposed in the draft.

He brings grit, determination, a hard hit and a lot of NHL experience that could appeal to Vegas.

His three years left at $2.5 million may make the new club carefully consider other options and if the Leafs don’t lose him, it seems they will not be too disappointed.

On defence, Roman Polak, Matt Hunwick, Martin Marincin and Alexey Marchenko are the big names from the Leafs that could be claimed, with the remaining players exposed being mostly just AHL fillers.

FORWARDS

  • Joffrey Lupul
  • Brooks Laich
  • Milan Michalek
  • Colin Greening
  • Matt Martin
  • Eric Fehr
  • Ben Smith
  • Seth Griffith
  • Kerby Rychel
  • Brendan Leipsic

DEFENCEMEN

  • Roman Polak
  • Martin Marincin
  • Matt Hunwick
  • Alexey Marchenko
  • Steve Olesky
  • Andrew Campbell

GOALIES

  • Curtis McElhinney
  • Antoine Bibeau
  • Garret Sparks
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