Leafs Make Significant, 25-Man Roster Purge Following Preseason

The Toronto Maple Leafs made their first two waves of roster adjustments over the past 24 hours, with a handful of moves on Wednesday ahead of their preseason finale, followed by an 19-player cut on Thursday afternoon.

Wednesday saw defencemen Cole McWard and Dakota Mermis get placed on waivers while Vinny Borgesi, Brandon Buhr, Hayes Hundley and Borya Valis were assigned directly to the Toronto Marlies.

McWard, a 25-year-old who was signed by the Leafs this summer, and Mermis, a 32-year-old veteran who enters his third year in the organization, both cleared waivers this afternoon.

Today’s group saw ten players directly head to the Marlies:

• Artur Akhtyamov, goaltender
• Ken Appleby, goaltender
• Noah Chadwick, defenceman
• Ben Danford, defenceman
• Luke Haymes, forward
• Samuel Hlavaj, goaltender
• Miroslav Holinka, forward
• Jacob Quillan, forward
• Landon Sim, forward
• Blake Smith, forward

None of these are particularly surprising drop-downs. An optimistic fan may have had some home for Danford, Toronto’s 2024 first-round pick, to make the NHL blue line, but there’s no sense in rushing the 20-year-old into a depth position. With just a few weeks of pro experience under his belt following a four-year OHL career, it’s in his best interest to build his talent level in higher-leverage minutes in the AHL, rather than minding the bench up top.

Akhtyamov made a spectacular case for himself as last year’s AHL playoff MVP en route to a Marlies Calder Cup win, but with Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz in the depth chart, he’s best off maintaining a starter’s workload in the AHL for now.

Also assigned directly to another team is Tinus Luc Koblar, Toronto’s second round pick in 2025. He’s been assigned to Rogle BK of the SHL to play his second season at Sweden’s top level. This will come as a disappointment to some, who saw the Norweigan’s surprisingly stellar play at the 2026 World Championships and thought that he could potentially crack the Maple Leafs lineup this year, but a combination of the team’s forward depth and an underwhelming training camp made this decision a little easier. Personally, I would’ve liked to have seen him on the Marlies, but perhaps being closer to home for now makes more sense. Rogle will be a different program for him after spending the last three years in Leksands’ system.

The waiver wire is a little bit more interesting, with the following players hanging in the balance:

• Brendan Brisson, forward
• Vinni Lettieri, forward
• Steven Lorentz, forward
• Philippe Myers, defenceman
• Michael Pezzetta, forward
• Henrik Rybinski, forward
• Ryan Tverberg, forward

The biggest brand name for most Leafs fans here will be Lorentz, who was a roster regular for the last two seasons, scoring 15 goals and 22 assists across 151 games in 2024/25 and 2025/26. Lorentz enters the second year of a three-year extension paying him $1.35 million per year. In his case, this is largely a numbers game in a depth chart that features an abundance of forwards, though he’s about what you’d expect from a fourth liner in the current league.

I could see this going either way for the 30-year-old, who had stints in Carolina, San Jose, and Florida before joining the Leafs. He is just useful enough that a team that doesn’t love the bottom of their forward lineup might claim him, but the extra year on his contract at a slightly above buriable cap hit could give teams some pause. It’s also the perfect time to waive players like this, as teams are scrambling to figure out their own rosters, don’t often want to chase maybes on the fringes on short, last-second notice, and are usually still healthy enough to not be thin on depth.

If Lorentz clears and is sent to the Marlies, he’ll still carry a $200,000 NHL salary cap hit. Looking at the rest of the group, there are many names who could be a threat to be claimed if they went through mid-season, but I would expect them all to clear. The one maybe of the bunch could be Philippe Myers if only by virtue of being a tall right-shot defenceman, but at 29, I think most have moved on from seeing him as an upside bet.

Equally interesting might be who has survived the wire for now. Bo Groulx and Zack MacEwen are both staying up for now, which surprises me. Groulx, 26, is on the precipice of AAAA talent in his American League stints and put up a respectable 5 points in 13 games in his Leafs call ups last year, hanging around in bottom-six minutes while showing some offensive touch when needed, including in powerplay situations this preseason. MacEwen has found himself on the fringes of NHL lineups more than he’s found himself in the AHL over the years, and had a surprisingly good camp.

Both would be claim risks even now, but I feel like they’d be even bigger risks if the Leafs wait, so I wonder if they’re being given an honest shot at making the team. Nick Paul’s injury last night, which doesn’t have a timeline as of yet, could afford some flexibility to the team to hold onto a player or two for the first few games. Also interesting on this note was Dakota Joshua’s appearance in practices today, after being left out of training camp groups.

Several teams, including Minnesota, Los Angeles, and Carolina, made waiver dumps of their own today, for a total of 30 players on the wire, which should further decrease the chances of Toronto’s players being claimed. We’ll know for sure tomorrow afternoon.