The Toronto Maple Leafs will get a boost to their lineup on Saturday night when winger Dakota Joshua returns to the team’s lineup.
Joshua has been out all season due to injury, but following a conditioning stint with the AHL Toronto Marlies, he’s finally back in the Maple Leafs’ lineup on Saturday night against his old team, the Vancouver Canucks.
Maple Leafs Lineup vs. Vancouver Canucks
Per Leafslatest, here is Toronto’s lineup for their Saturday night game against the Canucks, with both Joshua and Chris Tanev return to the team’s lineup after they were both activated off the IR.
“Here is Toronto’s lineup on Saturday against the Canucks.
Maple Leafs lines in Vancouver for the final game of the road trip:
McKenna-Matthews-Roslovic
Cowan-Paul-Nylander
Joshua-Sissons-Lettieri
Duhaime-Blueger-MacEwen
McCabe-Raddysh
Rielly-Tanev
OEL-Stecher
Stolarz
Bobrovsky
Chris Tanev and Dakota Joshua are officially back, with Stolarz getting the start in goal”
McKenna-Matthews-Roslovic Cowan-Paul-Nylander Joshua-Sissons-Lettieri Duhaime-Blueger-MacEwen
McCabe-Raddysh Rielly-Tanev OEL-Stecher
Stolarz Bobrovsky
Chris Tanev and Dakota Joshua are officially back,
The Maple Leafs have lost their last two games against the Calgary Flames and the Seattle Kraken, so they need to pick up two points against the lowly Canucks to keep pace in the stacked Atlantic Division.
Dakota Joshua Could Still Be Traded
Even though Joshua returned to Toronto’s lineup tonight, that doesn’t mean that he won’t be traded at some point, especially when the Maple Leafs see more of their injured forwards return to the ice in the coming weeks.
Although Joshua is a decent player, his $3.25 million salary means that he has to play, because he can’t be making that much money sitting in the press box. Right now, he’s going to get third-line minutes for Toronto, but he needs to play well to keep his spot on the team, as there are going to be quite a few players returning to the team’s lineup in the coming weeks who could put Joshua out of the lineup.
For now, however, Joshua is getting his chance to play, and now let’s see how he performs, as the Maple Leafs could really use him to score some goals and provide some value with his physical game, as he is also known for throwing his body.
Dakota Joshua Returns for Maple Leafs