Leafs Recall William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Nikita Soshnikov and others (Updated)

Who’s ready to freak out with me? According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Toronto’s top prospect could make his NHL debut tonight against the Tampa Bay Lightning.

“Damien [Cox] mentioned on Saturday night that we could be seeing William Nylander in the Toronto lineup soon, and there are some rumblings that it could be tonight,” Friedman revealed while sitting on Sportsnet’s trade breakers panel.

Nylander has spent the entire season with the Toronto Marlies (oh, and a one-game stint with Team Sweden at the WJCs), and has scored 18 goals and 45 points in 37 games played, good for 12th in AHL scoring.

Kapanen has similarly spent all year with the Marlies, scoring eight goals and 22 points in 32 games. He also scored five points in seven games for Team Finland at the World Juniors, including the gold medal-winning goal against Russia. Soshnikov has 18 goals and 28 points in 50 games.

To fit all the recalls, Toronto has also loaned Mark Arcobello, Brendan Leipsic and Josh Leivo to the Marlies. That said, this is likely a paper transaction and all of them could very well be in the Leafs lineup tonight. In order to be eligible for the AHL playoffs, players must be assigned to an AHL team as the NHL trade deadline passes.

Ok, so, now that that’s out of the way… as promised, let’s freak out.