Photo credit: USA Today Sports

The Toronto Maple Leafs have selected their official roster for tonight’s pre-season finale against the Detroit Red Wings and Easton Cowan will not dress.

Coming into tonight’s game against Detroit with a 3-1-1 record, the Leafs will be looking to end the pre-season and close out training camp on a high note with a huge win on Saturday night at Scotiabank Arena before they head out onto the road to kick off the 2024-25 regular season against Montreal and New Jersey on back-to-back nights on October 9th and 10th.

The Leafs are dressing a roster this evening that will very closely resemble the one they plan to ice on opening night, with the exception of a few names. Nick Robertson, Calle Jarnkrok and Jake McCabe all suffered injuries during Thursday’s win over Detroit, and each will take the night off on Saturday to ensure that they’re fully healthy when their season opens against the Canadiens next week.

With McCabe on the sidelines, Philippe Myers will receive one last significant opportunity to make an impression on the coaching staff, though the expectation is that he’ll be waived and sent down to the Toronto Marlies regardless of how well he performs tonight.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that Easton Cowan, who was not loaned back to the OHL yesterday, is not dressed for tonight’s final pre-season game after dressing in each of the first 5 games. This could be an indicator that he will either remain with the team on a short trial run — much like Fraser Minten did last season — or that he’ll be cut in the coming days and loaned back to the London Knights.

Per Leafs PR on Twitter/X, here is tonight’s full lineup:

The expectation is that Joseph Woll will play the full 60 minutes tonight after Anthony Stolarz played the full 60 on Thursday, securing a 2-0 shutout win for the Leafs.

The expectation is that Leafs GM Brad Treliving has a trade or two remaining to help the Leafs get below the salary cap prior to opening night. Perhaps tonight’s game will act as a showcase of sorts for a couple of players while Robertson, McCabe and Jarnkrok recover. It is worth noting that Robertson was back at practice on Saturday, so his injury does not appear to be anything significant.

With Timothy Liljegren not dressing tonight, there’s a good chance that either he and his $3M cap hit are being shopped or that the Leafs are attempting to showcase Conor Timmins, who has 1 year left on his current deal at a reasonable $1.1M cap hit.