BREAKING: Leafs make SURPRISING move... Multiple Updates | Toronto Maple Leafs News

Breaking news, the Toronto Maple Leafs have just made a major move. And ahead of the game tonight, in which many fans are calling a must win because of how the past few games have went, they have made a move calling up a name we have yet to see this year. We're gonna break down exactly who they called up, discuss what it means, as well as a bunch of injury updates, including... Chris Tanev missing another game due to load management that has himself pretty livid as well. A lot to go over today, but before we get into it, a very quick reminder, hit that subscribe button. You guys have been beast support Darius as I run into it. We have some news today that not really people weren't really expecting this. So Colton Sissons has been placed on the injured reserve retroactive to November 8th, but Brendan Brisson has been recalled from the Toronto Marlies. Now, this is a name that we have yet to discuss this year, at least on the channel. But he's actually an intriguing name, I guess. I mean, we're at the point of the season now where this, I don't want to say their season is holding on by a thread because that's not the case, but they need to get a win somehow. Tonight, you're going up against a very good team and you have to take care of business. Now, of course, the timeline for Colton Sissons was November 8th. He obviously left against New Jersey, listed week to week. But now you get Brisson being recalled. And to be honest, I don't hate it. He's someone that we've seen Vinny Letari this year. We've seen a lot of guys. None of them have been able to do anything. Maybe Brendan Brisson, who's having a great season with the Marlies, almost a goal every other game, maybe he can provide some sort of juice to this team that desperately, desperately needs it. Now, I don't know if he's going to play. And by the way, stick around to the end of the episode because we're going to talk about William Nylander. I have a theory about Anthony Stolarz and Chris Tanev as well that plays into Andy O'Brien. And who is Andy O'Brien? We will get to it later. But with Brandon Brees on, I don't know if he's going to play in this game, but he's been playing very well in the AHL. And he's played very well in the AHL for quite some time now. When you look back at last season when he was with the Hartford Wolfpack, he was playing very well. Very well, putting up points, looked way more comfortable compared to the rest of his pro career and his career in the NHL so far, which has been relatively short. So I don't know if he gets into the game today, but he's been ripping it up with the Marley so far. He looks like he's getting into that level where you become so comfortable in the AHL. You're putting up so many points that maybe you do take that next step to being like a depth player in the NHL. And it's taken him a little bit. He's not like the oldest guy either. He's in his mid-20s, right? But it's taken him maybe a little bit to get going here. But really excited to see what's next for him. And credit to him, he's been playing very, very well. And he gets the call up here. Yeah, and obviously he was drafted sixth. years ago, which I mean back in 2020, which kind of sounds crazy. I also definitely mispronounced his name of the star, but as it is, we're learning to fly. Colton Sissons, um, the more important update here is that they've moved him to the IR. Now, we covered this. As much as people like to say that John Chayka overpaid for him and all this, he has been one of the more important players to that bottom six this entire year. And you can look at his defensive impact. He's had a very, very good season so far relative to, I think, what people initially thought of him, even though he was making a lot. So, yeah, that's the update there. Unfortunate assistance is good for Brisson or whatever his name is. I'm going to let that ride. But let's dive into next. Chris Tanev, because there is an update surrounding him. He is not in the game. You can see here, he sits for planned maintenance. Cole McWard draws in, which the good news is, I'm excited to see Cole McWard. I thought he looked really good in his first game as a Leaf. The bad news is, Chris Tanev is sitting again, and he has publicly said that he wants to play and that he doesn't agree with the load management. When you look at his recent minutes, it's probably the right call. The problem is, he... They need him to win games, and they desperately need to win as many games as humanly possible because all of a sudden now, the Leafs are falling out of the playoff race quickly, as ridiculous as that sounds. Now, the good news is, you look at the wildcard spot, even though the Eastern Conference has been very good this year, no team has ran away with it. Like, the wildcard spot 1 and 2, I mean, obviously the Senators are having a good year, but like, the Panthers are 10-7-2, and they're in the wildcard 2 spot. So, the Leafs are only four points out of it. Um, that being said, it is still a little bit. It's concerning when you look at the fact that if they continue to lose games here, they're going to get, I mean, it's going to be very, very tough. They'll be decimated in the standings, but positive, and I'm excited very much so to see Cole McWard kind of clock back in, and I think he should have played last game, but we'll see how he does in the absence of Chris Tannen. I actually think this is a very weird one. I want to bring up something from yesterday. But before I do that, I do want to mention that when you're looking at the standings, a lot of people are making the point that, oh, it's far too early or it's too late in the Leafs case, which is hilarious. If you're looking at it, everyone's still in the mix, right? Especially in the Atlantic Division, right? So am I concerned? Yes, because if these things continue to trend this way, it's not going to go well for the Leafs, right? So they have to turn a couple of things around here. And we'll get into that later in this episode, too. But it... They're still in the mix. Everyone in the Atlantic Division is still in the mix and anything can happen. And they've gone through their gauntlet of injuries already so far this season. Other teams are going to go through that. Other teams have to go on their road trips, all of that type of stuff. Now in the lineup decisions tonight, it's not a back-to-back, right? So it's interesting. So when you think of Chris Tanev, he's a warrior, right? He wants to play in every single game. When he originally got hurt and he was out for the month or whatever, the couple of weeks he was out, he wanted to play and get back into that game and play. He's a warrior, right? And it's the Leafs organization and the training staff They're holding him back from playing right now. Apparently they have a plan in place and it's all part of the new sports science that they're working with. And I wonder if it plays into Andy O'Brien as well. They hired him as the new, you know, Trainer I guess I'm working with some of the guys and forgive me, I forget his actual title, but Austin Matthews was speaking about him and how he has a readiness score at the start of every day for every single player. So I wonder if this is playing into that and my reason for that thinking, and I wish the Leafs organization was a little more transparent with this stuff because now it leaves us to speculate and wonder about this stuff with the information that we do have. But I wonder if there was something in his readiness score this morning where they're like, hey, he can't go tonight for whatever reason, because if you look at practice yesterday, he was slotted in there. Like he was going to play today and we're not on the second half of a back-to-back, right? I know they're playing like every other day, but we're not on the second half of a back-to-back and Cole McWard, who's in the lineup tonight and going to be playing, he was not, he was dressing as an extra forward at practice yesterday. So why wouldn't you practice as if you're going to practice, uh, play the game, excuse me. Right. So I think that that's a little weird. And again, it leaves us up to just speculate and wonder about certain things. Thanks Chris Tanev, you know, they want him to be able to play in January, February, March without complications, right? That's the biggest thing. That's why they're doing some of this stuff. It's the same thing with Kawhi and the Raptors, right? for It's the exact same thing, the load management thing. But the thing for me is, like, if you're 10 points out having of a playoff spot in February and Chris Tanev's still playing, like, that doesn't really help at that time. Like, Chris Tanev's a huge part of this team, right? I can understand it from both perspectives, but it's interesting. me. And it kind of takes you out as a player too, right? If somebody is holding you back and going, you can't play. And there's no like physical, you know, ailment that is obvious that kind of screws you up mentally as well. So, um, and we know Chris Tannen wants to play, he spoke out and he said, like, I have a differing opinion from, you know, the GM here. Like I want to be in these games. So, uh, it's pretty interesting. We'll see how that progresses, how many games he actually does miss down the stretch. But yeah, to get to William Nylander real quick, because I do want to get into this, Nick. A lot of people saying like he's in a, I saw this stuff yesterday, he's in a slump. And forgive me if we said slump or if I said the word slump, but a lot of people yesterday talking about him in a slump. It's not a slump. He's not, he's just not playing up to the level we know that he can, right? And should William Nylander be traded? Because I saw a lot of that yesterday too. No. What we need right now is William Nylander to play like William Nylander. That's a big reason as to why they're not winning right now. He has to be on. He's paid a lot of money. Matthews has to be on, which I thought he was last game as well. But these guys that are just kind of going through the motions right now, they have to pick it up. This is the time when you need to pick it up to get yourselves out of the slump as a team. So he's not, you know, specifically in a slump, but he does need to play better. He needs to, especially five on five and defensively, he just, he has to control the play. Yeah, people have been upset because he looks like, at least on the surface, like he's coasting, which he kind of does. That's kind of just the way he operates, at least this year, which is showing up more now when the defense is so bad. So you can see here his first 15 games, well over a point a game, 1.3 points, whereas the last five, about half a point a game. He's still putting up points like he's still playing good hockey. It's just he's not playing. A complete game, I think, would be the best thing. And we even had Jim Hiller talk about it, saying that he's overthinking a little bit right now. Tavares even taking ownership on his own front about he has to get better of himself. But at all points of the night, William Nylander against Minnesota, wherein his career hasn't been fantastic, hasn't been bad. He's actually been pretty good, realistically. He put up almost a point a game. So very, very good. But when I say hasn't been great, We're going to have to see how it actually plays tonight because he's been good this season, but as of late, it's been bad. Darius, any final thoughts? I wouldn't say he's in a slump by any means. I just think fans, rightfully so, expect a little bit more out of your, in theory, I guess, second best player. The team is in a slump, and the reason that the team is in a slump right now, if you look at all the advanced analytics, and a lot of people are making a point of this, it does actually come back to the goaltending. And I trust even Valiquette. He's a former goaltender. He does a lot of work with analytics now. He's basically saying that the Leafs are actually playing their best hockey right now in the last two years since Keefe was here. And right now it's coming down to the goaltending. The Leafs have the best goaltending environment, basically, or one of the best. And it does come down to Bobrovsky. So Stolarz goes tonight. We didn't even mention that. So Stolarz is going tonight. Nylander needs to play better. He doesn't need to be traded or all this other garbage that you're getting over the last 24 hours. Am I frustrated with him? Yes, absolutely. But we just need him to get back to doing what he does best and play a responsible game because when he's on his game, he's controlling play. You don't have to play in the defensive zone. You don't have to give up all these goals five on five because you have the puck and you're making things happen in the offensive zone. That hasn't been happening. He's also been complaining that he hasn't been getting the puck a lot. Work for it, man. Go get the puck yourself. You know what I mean? Like, go make things happen, right? So, do we need to trade him, move on from all this garbage, whatever? Do people think that he was asked to waive his no-movement clause? No, I don't think so. I think that he's just not feeling it right now. He maybe feels like it needs to come easier. The whole team is not feeling it. Maybe he feels like his teammates need to give him the puck more. I say go get the puck. Get back to playing the way we know you can. And you don't have to play in the defensive zone because you'll have the puck in the offensive zone. Let us know down below. Darius will be live for the game, so make sure to stay tuned for that, and hopefully they can take care of business, and we'll see you guys in the video.