At some point you have to wonder when enough is enough. Earlier it was Tavares and Kerfoot, now Jason Spezza and Wayne Simmonds have also been placed in COVID protocols according to the Leafs:

Presumably the Leafs feel they have exhausted their recallable forward list since Carl Dahlstrom will be one of the two players coming from the Marlies.

Also, they should, I dunno, consider cancelling the games in Vancouver and Seattle. The Leafs have a growing list of ineligible players, and the Canucks are already in a rough spot as well, is it worth continuing with a game that does little more than risk the infection of other players?

Of course this is the NHL, and cancelling games isn’t something they do easily, so let’s just try and take a guess at what the potential Leafs lineup card could look like on Saturday night.

Bunting-Matthews-Kase (not bad)
Ritchie-Nylander-Mikheyev
Clifford-Kampf-Engvall
Steeves

Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Liljegren
Dermott-Holl
Dahlstrom-Biega

Yep. We’re in eight defensemen territory.

That’s probably a necessity as well given that there are 5 Marlies players in protocol as well, and recalling the forwards that the Leafs would usually go after in this situation might be unavailable.

It seems likely further updates will be coming on this situation tomorrow, but as for now the Leafs are still scheduled to play the Canucks tomorrow night and the Kraken on Sunday.