Maple Leafs make cuts, Dermott bumps Lehtonen - Toronto Sun

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Lehtonen, the leading scorer among KHL defencemen last year with Jokerit, stood out in Saturday’s lone inter-squad exhibition game. He was second star with a couple of assists on William Nylander goals and was point man on the second power-play unit. But Keefe has been looking for more.

“We don’t want to rush him into a situation that he may be not be adjusted to quite yet,” the coach said. “We’re playing off a bit of the history of other players in his situation who’ve come into organization — and that’s with traditional exhibition games to find their way (which the Leafs didn’t have the benefit of this year).

“So we’re going to take a little step back for him to watch and get a feel for the league. Reflecting on it and looking at last week. we like a lot of things about him. Certainly the power play, he’s ready to contribute there. (But) we think there are other areas of his game that need a little more time.

“He’ll get in at some point. I don’t know of any decision (he and general manager Kyle Dubas) would describe as final.”

The Leafs let 14 players go Monday to what will be the nucleus of the Marlies camp, as the American Hockey League eyes a Feb. 5 start to its own drastically reduced schedule.

The full cuts included forwards Pierre Engvall, Kenny Agostino, Joey Anderson (picked up from New Jersey in the Andreas Johnsson trade), Justin Brazeau, Rourke Chartier, Scott Sabourin, Tyler Gaudet and Nic Petan; defencemen Martin Marincin, Calle Rosen, Timothy Liljegren, Teemu Kivihalme, Mac Hollowell and goalie Michael Hutchinson .

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2021-01-11 23:03:45Z
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