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Without Nick Robertson or Jani Hakanpaa, the Maple Leafs can still afford to add a significant piece to the roster and The Athletic’s Kevin Papetti reveals how.

While the Leafs would like to add Jani Hakanpaa and Nicholas Robertson to their active roster, both remain without contracts and neither appear to have resolutions coming any time soon.

Without the pair, the Leafs have been afforded some cap flexibility for the first time in years as they have $1.275M in cap space with a roster that includes 12 forwards, 7 defensemen and 2 goaltenders.

In past seasons, the Leafs have had to begin the season with a player or multiple players on LTIR and have had to utilize a roster lower than the maximum or 23 players to be cap compliant. This season, it appears they will be able to fill at the minimum 22 of the 23 roster spots without any cap implications.

As GM Brad Treliving noted following the annointment of Auston Matthews as the team’s 26th captain in franchise history, he is still looking to make changes, which could include clearing out more cap space.

Papetti provided a quick overview of the Leafs’ current situation on Tuesday evening, but while some view the team as limited in what they can do to address the left wing position, Papetti revealed that there are ways to create more space for the right move. Moving someone like David Kampf, Conor Timmins or Ryan Reaves can create quite a bit of additional flexibility.

As we approach September, the scent of training camp is in the air. The Leafs still have holes on the roster, so we should expect a move or two prior to camp, even if it’s just a pair of professional tryouts. We do know that Treliving believes that you build your team in the summer, so I don’t know how many in-season moves we can expect, meaning that the next couple of weeks will be interesting in Toronto.