How Nick Blankenburg's PTO Could Impact Maple Leafs Roster And Defense Depth Chart

After reports revealed that the Toronto Maple Leafs were bringing in Nick Blankenburg on a professional tryout, the team officially announced the PTO signing on Monday.

With that, the 28-year-old defenseman will join the Leafs at training camp and pre-season, as long as the club is willing to keep him around for that long.

However, Blankenburg would only officially be a member of the Maple Leafs if they signed him to a standard professional contract. And as it stands, Toronto doesn’t have the space to do so.

The Leafs have the maximum number of standard contracts signed within the organization (50), according to PuckPedia.

Therefore, if Leafs management is impressed and pleased with how Blankenburg performs in training camp, to the point where they would want to add him to the main roster for the 2026-27 regular season, GM John Chayka would need to make some roster moves.

In addition to the Maple Leafs needing to make changes if they’d prefer to keep Blankenburg on the roster beyond training camp, there’s already a backlog of depth defensemen in the system.

There are already several candidates to fill the role of the seventh D-man, including Troy Stecher, who signed a two-year extension with Toronto in late June, and Emil Andrae, the main acquisition in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers. Not to mention, Marshall Rifai, William Villeneuve, Dakota Mermis and Philippe Myers are all capable of NHL minutes, albeit some better than others.

Emil Andrae Shares Reaction To Maple Leafs Trade, Pumped For A ‘Fresh Start’

Emil Andrae Shares Reaction To Maple Leafs Trade, Pumped For A ‘Fresh Start’Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Emil Andrae said he suspected that he would get traded from the Philadelphia Flyers. “But when I found out it was Toronto, I couldn’t be happier.”

If Toronto were willing to dump a defenseman for Blankenburg, one of those mentioned blueliners would likely be sacrificed. And if room was made for the 5-foot-9 D-man by moving off a player from another position instead, that would only add to the logjam on the back end.

In fairness, having substantial depth on any roster at any position is a strength and can lead to success in the NHL. But the Maple Leafs would also need to keep an eye on the salary cap and remain compliant, especially if they want to leave room for any moves during the coming season.

Currently, with Max Domi’s $3.75-million cap hit not on long-term injured reserve, the Leafs are over the salary cap by $2.75 million.

Report: Maple Leafs’ Max Domi Will Miss Start of Training Camp, Remains Out Indefinitely GM John Chayka SaysChayka also added that Domi wants to address the injury himself at some point.

One theory regarding Blankenburg’s PTO revolves around the health and status of defenseman Chris Tanev. The 36-year-old Tanev said he’s feeling good going into this season, but confirmation from his doctors is still required.

He underwent a significant core muscle injury in March and has gone through the off-season recovering from that. That’s on top of the concussion and a spinal injury he dealt with, leading to just 11 appearances for Toronto last year. So, Blankenburg could be seen as an insurance policy.

If the news for Tanev isn’t positive and the Leafs are forced to be without him for some time to begin 2026-27, Blankenburg could be activated as an insurance policy.

Report: Chris Tanev Waiting To Be Cleared By Doctors, Plans To Be On Ice First Day Of Maple Leafs CampWhile Tanev aims to be ready for the opening day of camp, Tanev described his rehab from surgery in March as “slow”. The veteran defender has to show that the injury issues of last year are fully in the rearview mirror.

Blankenburg has played parts of five seasons and featured in a total of 176 games in the NHL. Last year, he made a career-high 61 appearances split between the Nashville Predators and Colorado Avalanche, scoring a personal-best six goals and 24 points.

He didn’t get much action with the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avs, averaging 12:02 of ice time in 12 regular-season games and 9:25 of ice time in nine post-season contests. But before he was traded from Nashville, he averaged 17:58 of ice time with the Preds in 2025-26.

See more of The Hockey News on Google — Save us as Preferred Source

For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.

Read the full article here