Maple Leafs Expected To Invite Nick Blankenburg To Training Camp

The Point

With training camps now only a few days away from getting underway, we’ll likely start to see an uptick in tryout contracts in the near future. It appears one of those will come from the Maple Leafs as Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe reports that defenseman Nick…

Timeline

Sep 12
Maple Leafs Expected To Invite Nick Blankenburg To Training Camp
Pro Hockey Rumors →

Key numbers

Training Camp
60 games
2024-25
49 games
$2.75
LTIR

Context

Philadelphia Flyers
Toronto Maple Leafs
Trade
Injury

LTIR: Long-Term Injured Reserve — allows a team to exceed the cap while a player is out long-term.

Full reporting

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With training camps now only a few days away from getting underway, we’ll likely start to see an uptick in tryout contracts in the near future. It appears one of those will come from the Maple Leafs as Kevin Paul Dupont of The Boston Globe reports that defenseman Nick Blankenburg will attend training camp with Toronto.

The 28-year-old has had a chance to play more of a regular role the last two seasons after being more of an organizational depth piece beforehand. Blankenburg had 16 points in 60 games with Nashville in 2024-25, while averaging over 19 minutes per night in what was a breakout year of sorts for him.

Blankenburg was able to build on that last season. He had 21 points in 49 games with the Predators in a little under 18 minutes per night but with Nashville being destined to miss the playoffs, he was moved to Colorado at the trade deadline.

The Avalanche flipped a fifth-round pick to acquire Blankenburg to deploy him in the depth role he had previously been more accustomed to. He got into a dozen regular season games with the Avs, notching three points while adding a goal in five playoff contests, though in much less ice time than he had before the swap.

Blankenburg consistently posts positive possession and underlying numbers but didn’t have much success on the open market this summer. A big part of that likely has to do with his size as he stands just 5’9, a size that not many teams are comfortable with having on their back end unless it’s an elite performer.

Toronto isn’t necessarily one of those teams after new GM John Chayka targeted blueliner Emil Andrae in a pre-draft trade with Philadelphia.

As far as depth tryouts go for training camp, Blankenburg is a wise one for Toronto. Chris Tanev is still working his way back from surgery and if he’s not cleared for the start of the season despite his hopes to be so, Blankenburg could serve as a viable extra piece.

Toronto is more than $2.75MM above the Upper Limit, per PuckPedia. However, Max Domi will be out for the start of training camp while recovering from offseason surgery and is a strong candidate to land on LTIR.

That would give the Maple Leafs enough wiggle room to add Blankenburg on a minimum-salary deal (or close to it) and still be in cap compliance when the regular season starts for them later this month.