The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting to a point where they are missing more players from their lineup than they’ll have available when the season is set to resume on December 27th. With the news that defenseman Morgan Rielly was added to the COVID protocol list on Thursday, the Leafs now have a total of 12 players, three coaches and four members of the support staff.
Related: Maple Leafs Will Likely Be Short Key Players After NHL Pause Lifted
Rielly is the latest in a long line of players to be tested positive just prior or after the NHL put most of its teams on a pause. He’s among the bigger losses for the team who has names like Alex Kerfoot, John Tavares, David Kampf, Ilya Mikheyev, Wayne Simmonds, TJ Brodie, Jason Spezza, and Jack Campbell already on the list.
The team will be getting some of these players back sooner than others, including Mitch Marner who should be ready if the games resume as intended. Still, this is going to be tough sledding for the Maple Leafs as the team will need the salary cap space to call up players and the NHL hasn’t considered giving team salary cap relief yet.
The league is scheduled to resume play with 14 games on Monday, including Toronto at the Columbus Blue Jackets, but cross-border travel is going to be a major issue coming out of the break and there are more postponements possible with a number of clubs dealing with multiple COVID-19 cases.
The Calgary Flames have everybody except for Matthew Tkachuk, Blake Coleman, and Michael Stone are in protocol.
Next: Holland Wants 10-Day COVID Cap Relief for Oilers and NHL
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