Around this time every year, players begin to return to their respective NHL cities and participate in "captain skates" as they are called. They are most often different variations of scrimmages with some miscellaneous drills worked in for whatever players want to do them. This week, a number of Leafs returned to Toronto and their practice facility for their first informal skate on Tuesday.
There were a number of regulars that returned, however Rachel Doerrie noted that a few significant players have yet to return. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner were both absent from today's skate as they have yet to return to Toronto. Marner, is probably still on his honeymoon as he was married just a couple of weeks ago, while Matthews is still skating in Arizona. Both should be joining these informal skates in the next week or so to gain some familiarity with new teammates and potential linemates Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Domi as well as depth forward Ryan Reaves and defenseman John Klingberg before training camp begins in mid-September.
There's also a theory floating around that Matthews could be waiting to return to Toronto to give his agent and the Leafs more time to finalize his extension so that when he shows up, the extension can be announced and he won't have to answer the same question over and over again about it.
