Leafs Free Up Cap Space with Roster Move Ahead of Trade Deadline

With the NHL Trade Deadline ending at 3PM on Friday, March 7, teams are in the final stretch of shaping their rosters before the playoffs, or in the case of selling teams; accelerate a rebuild.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are expected to be big players at the deadline, and already made one key roster move earlier waiving forward Ryan Reaves. Well, the team has made a second deal in order to save some cap space.

The team announced they had assigned defenseman Dakota Mermis to the Toronto Marlies.

Mermis never played with the Maple Leafs this season however did manage to play one game as member of Utah earlier this season.

He signed a one-year pact with the team earlier this summer as part of a group of minor depth signings by GM Brad Treliving.

It may not be the last move Toronto makes as they could still waive or trade players like Connor Dewar and Conor Timmins.

With Reaves waived and Mermis reassigned, it opens up the Maple Leafs to make a deal for one of their several trade targets.

They've seen a lot of high end as well as depth targets head for other teams, and with limited time to make a deal, the crunch time is real for Brad Treliving and he's trying to do as much as he can in the timeframe he has.

The team could be trying to open up room for Brayden Schenn although with St, Louis' current situation, that's a huge wild card. There's been some rumblings about Mikko Rantanen being a potential target, which would be incredible for Treliving but does require $2.3M to work with (if the Hurricanes retain 50%).

Whatever move he makes though, it looks like Mermis is the latest casualty as the roster starts to take shape and could potentially look a lot different come Friday night.