Report Confirms Maple Leafs Still Interested in Signing Auston Matthews' Ex-USHL Teammate

With 14 forwards on their roster currently, there is going to be lots of internal competition for two positions in the top-six when Maple Leafs' training camp begins in a few weeks.

On Saturday, we saw Matthew Knies publicly endorse William Nylander for the top line RW job, but that would leave John Tavares down a scoring forward to play with.

Earlier this week, NHL.com's Dave McCarthy suggested that the left and right wing spots in the top 6 should go to a pair of young forwards in Matias Maccelli and Nicholas Robertson.

Although many agree that Maccelli seems like the front-runner to fill the void of Mitch Marner, Robertson hasn't garnered much support for a top-six role, given his size and his inability to produce consistently over his young career.

Internally, the Leafs do have players to fill voids in their top-six, but as Brad Treliving continues to try to make changes to his forward group, one name that continuously appears is free agent Jack Roslovic.

Unsigned as we near the end of August, some teams like the Vancouver Canucks have become hesitant to engage in contract talks, leading many to believe the Leafs are the front-runners to land Auston Matthews' former United States National Team Development Program teammate.

The belief that the Leafs are leading the race to land the 28-year-old Jack Roslovic was further confirmed by Daily Faceoff's Frank Seravalli on Friday's edition of the Bleacher Report's 'Notebook'.

For the Leafs to accomodate the former first-round pick, they have to create more cap space than the $1.9M they currently have and move out a couple of bodies -- both of which Treliving is attempting to do.

To give themselves more time to find the roster and cap space, the Leafs may look to do something similar to last off-season where they invited Max Pacioretty to camp on a PTO before signing him to a contract later.