Maple Leafs Complete a Trio of Roster Transactions Ahead of Meeting with Sharks

The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to welcome back forward Calle Jarnkrok for his season debut tonight against the San Jose Sharks, and with that came a few roster moves to create the roster and cap space.

In order to make room for the return of Jarnkrok, defenseman Marshall Rifai and forward Alex Steeves have officially been sent back down to the AHL's Toronto Marlies.

Jarnkrok has been sidelined since the pre-season when he was forced into undergoing a sports hernia surgery. His imminent return couldn't have come at a better time for a team looking to solidify their secondary scoring and top-9 forward group.

By sending down Rifai and Steeves, the Maple Leafs now have $2.98 million dollars in cap space, according to PuckPedia. Once Jarnkrok is activated, that will leave the Leafs with $877K with Chris Tanev and Max Pacioretty on the IR and Jani Hakanpaa still on the LTIR.

Rifai has yet to appear in a game for the Maple Leafs this season but has 3 goals and 9 points in 44 games for the Toronto Marlies. He is coming off a career-best 19 points in 57 games last year in the AHL to go along with 71 PIMs while also making his NHL debut.

Steeves will return to the minors where he has 29 goals and 46 points in 40 games. He has been a very solid contributor for the Marlies with 98 goals and 200 points in 228 games over the last 4 seasons. He has 1 goal and 1 assist in 7 games played for the Leafs this year.

With the Leafs still having some extra cap space available, they've also recalled veteran defenseman Dakota Mermis from Marlies.

Jarnkrok will be entering in his third season with the Maple Leafs after having scored 20 goals and 39 points in 73 games in 2022-23 before notching 10 goals and 21 points in just 52 games last year.

He will need some time to ramp up to game speed but his presence in the lineup should balance out their attack and give them another player that can help out offensively.

The Leafs will be hosting the San Jose Sharks on Amazon Prime Monday Night Hockey as they look to finish off their back-to-back set. In a back-and-forth affair, Toronto came out victorious against the Pittsburgh Penguins yesterday and will be looking to extend their winning streak to 6 games with a win tonight.