hes been given the shaft because he can clear waivers... thats all you need to know ..
It is obviously more complicated than that as Lehtonen can also clear waivers.
The reality is that it is Lehtonen who is blocking Sandin for playing any games, just as previous replacement-level free wallets blocked Dermott in the fall of 2017 (Borgman and Rosen) and Holl in the fall of 2018 (Oz).
Lehtonen signed with Toronto because he was guaranteed to play. The problem is that it was clear during the Blue and White game that under normal circumstances a player of Lethonen's current ability (without the promise of playing) would be told that he needs a year or two in the AHL. Because they have Dermott and very little cap space they could use that an excuse to play Dermott over Lehtonen, but that doesn't work as a reason to play Sandin over Lehtonen. Normally they just let those free-walllets play themselves out of the lineup over half a year or so, but Lehtonen has been so poor at 5v5 that it is going to be really hard to actually give him enough games to do so.
TOI in the third period during their first 3 NHL games:
Lehtonen: 4:43
Liljegren: 10:12
Sandin: 12:36
Keefe doesn't trust Lehtonen at all, and if you simply watch all his shifts back to back he looks rough and gets hemmed into his own zone all the time (and because of that his shifts are unusually long - despite the low TOI). I don't think this is an adjustment thing. I think he simply can't process the game at NHL speed.
If Lehtonen was not signed there probably would have been a real competition between Dermott, Sandin and perhaps Liljegren (assuming Bogo can play on the left side) for ice time this season.
the good/bad news is that dermott is on the block so bascially sandin/lehtonon and bogo will platoon that third pair
This has been mentioned a couple times, including by Friedman, although it seems to be based simply on the Leafs having too many Ds, and not on any actual trade rumours. I have my doubts. I can't see the Leafs' trading Dermott unless they know they have a replacement. I don't see any way that Lehtonen can be that replacement and they won't know if Sandin can do it until they play him, which they can't because of the Lehtonen situation.
No secret that the Leafs development of Sandin has been absolutely putrid.
Romanov is getting red carpet treatment in Montreal, Sandin is in the doghouse in Toronto, sad to see
Yup, the team has been completely terrible when it comes to his development. Although, even if he was playing it would almost certainly still be terrible, only slightly less so. It seems extremely likely that once he finds himself in a full-time position with the Leafs they will "develop" him just like Dermott: several years being trained to be nothing except an extremely sheltered third-pairing D, and once in a blue moon when major injury problems occur being thrown up the lineup in a completely hectic situation for which he will have never been trained or prepared to deal with.
Its a little surprising the Leafs didn't let Sandin play this year in the SEL for his development.
I guess it depends on whether or not you actually believe that the Leafs' care about developing Sandin, because the other option is that all they care about is winning today and therefore having him available if they run into injury problems is more important then actually developing him into a good defenseman.
