The Leafs have played two preseason games in a split squad series, so now seems like as good a time as any to start talking in absolutes about who sucks and who should be on Tavares’ wing, right?
No. Okay, well, I’ll do my best to get through this post without reading anything into the games played and instead focus more on what’s to come and what we can potentially takeaway from the camp as a whole so far.
Cuts without actual cuts

Keefe sees today as “the end of training camp” with a day off tomorrow, new practice assignments and emphasis on regular season prep starting Monday.
— Lance Hornby (@sunhornby) September 25, 2022

This was one of the more interesting quotes following the preseason games, and should give us a good understanding of the direction the Leafs are going in. Keefe followed up that cuts weren’t imminent, and that makes sense as well. The AHL camps aren’t open yet, and it’s still nice to have some tryhards around to work the likely roster players against.
I’d suspect we see two very different groups for the Leafs in camp tomorrow, one that mirrors what we’ve seen from the Leafs in previous camps. We’ll see the players likely bound for the Leafs top six put together and paired with more defensively minded players bound for the Marlies, and in the second group, we’ll see the third and fourth line locks put with the offensively skilled AHL group.
The preliminary days of camp likely helped connect the dots that Jarnkrok should be playing with the top six group, Malgin should be put in a spot where he can best compete for an NHL job, …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation