Scott Harrington Reassigned to the AHL

The Toronto Maple Leafs had initially opted to keep recently acquired Scott Harrington, drafted in the second round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the opening lineup for the start of the 2015-2016 season. 

Now, though, the team has reversed that decision – and that raises a few questions about the team’s claim of 22 year old Frank Corrado off waivers from the Vancouver Canucks. 

In yesterday’s mailbag, I had reassured fans that keeping Scott Harrington in the lineup wasn’t necessarily going to create a Stuary Percy 2.0 situation – but whether the Leafs had anticipated sending him down or not early on, they certainly have in the wake of the Corrado claim. 

This creates one of two options moving forward. 

The first, of course, is the obvious one – that Corrado was acquired to take Harrington’s spot in the lineup, and the key piece from the Phil Kessel trade will have to spend another year developing before he’s given a chance at the NHL level. 

The second one, though, is one that some may not be considering – and it has a lot to do with cap compliance and the way the Leafs may end up handling guys like Roman Polak and Stephane Robidas. 

Per TSN’s Bob McKenzie, here’s a reminder of how cap compliance works to start out the season: 

Basically, teams need to have a 23 man roster and fit under the salary cap until after the first game of the season has been played – because players cannot be placed on long-term injured reserve until the day after the season has begun (therefore eliminating their cap hits from the books), teams are going to have to make these ‘paper moves’ that have to do with players fitting under the opening lineup roster and salary cap. 

Stephane Robidas has broken everything, so he’s likely going to be on long-term injured reserve. For now, though, the team needs to make these final adjustments to the lineup that will get them compliant for the opening night of the season – and whether they opt to keep Harrington down or not, this move makes the team compliant with the start of the season. They’re now at 23 players again – the addition of Corrado would have put them at 24 – and since Harrington is the waiver-exempt blue liner out of the team’s lineup, he’s the odd man out in this situation. 

Overall, though, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Whether he’s with the Marlies or not, Harrington will get the development he needs.