Maple Leaf training camp and pre-season can be a yawn, but not for players on the roster ‘bubble’, like Carter Ashton…

It’s probably been said here at VLM a few times over the years: after following the Maple Leafs for lo the past now 55 years (I don’t count the time until I approached my Dad, at the age of 4 or 5, and asked him if it was OK if I cheered for the Leafs, because we were a longstanding ‘Hab’ family), training camp just doesn’t excite me much.  In the sense that real hockey is just around the corner, sure, but for the most part it is all about trumped up story lines to fill space in the daily newspapers (and now, on the internet).  I get it.  I understand all that.  I do it myself, I guess.  And I like anticipation as much as the next guy.  (In fact, sometimes anticipation is better than the actual event…)  And it's not as though there is nothing for fans to bat around when it comes to the Leafs, as I noted here the other day.  I just don’t take the results at this time of the year in the hockey calendar all that seriously, whether this particular guy played well or not or whatever.

Hey, we’re still a ways off from when the games even count.  And then there’s mid-season hockey, the stretch drive and of course, that whole other world which is playoff hockey.  Now that matters.

But having said all that, I have no doubt that for the coaches, it is indeed a valuable and much-needed assessment time.  And for those players who are on the bubble—achingly close to earning an NHL salary versus being a much lower-paid Marlie or being sent back to Europe or the junior ranks—it means a whole heck of a lot.

The blue and white begin their next glut of exhibition games Thursday night in Ottawa, having already pared their inflated training camp ‘roster’ by quite a bit on Tuesday of this week. There were, to me at least, no real surprises in terms of who was dispatched. 

In fact, the thing that I’m finding somewhat confusing—if rather entertaining— is just trying to figure out where all the players fit.  Yes, McLaren is out for a bit with his pinkie issue, but if we assume (and we can) that the lines will shape up more or less this way (I’m just putting wingers on the wing, not worrying about left or right)...

Lupul    Bozak   Kessel

van Riemsdyk   Kadri   Clarkson

Kulemin   Bolland   (fill in the blank)

Orr   McClement   MacLaren

Phaneuf   Gardiner

Gunnarsson  Ranger

Fraser  Liles

...things still aren't exactly clear to me.  Now, setting aside our defense for a moment, assuming McLaren is back soon, that leaves only one spot available on game nights.  (I realize we can have extra guys hanging around—what’s the current CBA roster limit, 23?)  We can’t fit in all the guys that folks are talking about onto a 20-man game roster.  The Leafs have signed both Colborne and Mason Raymond to be with the big club on one-way contracts, right?  Unless there are injuries in the short term, how does that work—especially when you throw in names like Carter Ashton? Here is a young player who has been biding his time for the past couple of seasons with the Marlies, and developing his game so he can take advantage of an any opening in the Maple Leaf lineup.   Is he really ready now?  He has showed some jump and physicality at camp.  Would he be on the big club's roster in some other organization?  At 22, he is still young enough to be in the legitimate "prospect" category, but he seems to have moved from that realm to "on the doorstep". If he doesn't stick with the Leafs this fall, all things being equal, he's likely seen internally as the first guy Nonis and Carlyle will call up when injuries strike.

But regardless of Ashton's status, it still means that, depending on who you deploy, someone like Colborne would be playing out of position, unless we move McClement up to the third line on the wing. (Then he is out of position.)

I guess it’s a good “problem” to have, but again, they can’t all be here, eh?

Similarly, on defense, you always need to be ten-deep, absolutely, in terms of NHL ready defensemen.  But even with one guy sitting upstairs, the above defense pairings (even if we move them around) assume Rielly goes back to junior (and I think Carlyle wants him to stay) and that Franson won’t re-sign here.  If T.J. Brennan is the “7^th man”, no other promising defender makes the grade, it would seem. And what if Franson does eventually sign?

In short, it looks to me as though for all the talk about possible lineup surprises, we won’t be much surprised.  I don’t doubt all those guys on the bubble think they have their shot at impressing the brass—and are even convinced they are chasing a roster spot.  But are they, really?

I concede I may be missing something, so let me know what I’m not seeing.