Report: Leafs avoid disaster, NHL bails them out for tonight's game

UPDATE: The Leafs have officially recalled goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL's Toronto Marlies. It's expected that he'll be permitted by the NHL to play this evening under emergency circumstances.

Read below for our earlier report on this developing story.

Earlier this week the Toronto Maple Leafs signed top prospect Matthew Knies from the NCAA's Minnesota Golden Gophers. It's a big signing for a big name prospect and it deserves recognition, but the team arguably made a much more impactful signing yesterday that isn't receiving near the attention.

Because the Leafs have signed Knies and have inserted him into their roster, they no longer have the cap space to call up goaltender Joseph Woll from the AHL. This meant that last night Ilya Samsonov was backed up this evening by a beer leaguer on an amateur tryout.

To be fair to Nick Chenard, he's much better than your typical beer league goalie, but he's still nowhere near NHL level... or even AHL level. The 21 year old is a former OHL netminder who aged out of the league following this past season. Again, nothing against him and I honestly hope he gets to live out his NHL dreams... but this entire scenario seems like a bit of a farce to me.

What do the Leafs do tonight for their game against the Tampa Bay Lightning? Do they go back to Samsonov? They can't playy Chenard as he signed a one day amateur tryout. What's the play?

NHL insider Elliotte Friedman:

What an absolute joke...

I mean... the NHL will prop up a franchise the the Arizona Coyotes, a franchise who is doing everything they possible can to get under the NHL's salary floor. There's no punishment for the Coyotes... but the Leafs, a team who is consistently at the top of NHL's highest salaried teams, has to dress a minor leaguer for cap reasons.

Call me crazy, but I think there's got to be a better way for the NHL to go about things. Personally, I think every team should be required to carry three goaltenders at all times. I love a good David Ayres or Scott Foster story as much as the next guy, but it's pretty 'bush league' that things have to come to this. I mean, could you ever see the NFL, NBA or MLB allowing a team to sign a beer league accountant or a Zamboni driver take to the playing surface? Not a chance...

But in Gary Bettman's NHL we get weird, random little things like this that pop up all the time to remind us just how much the NHL actually cares about the sport that it pretends to champion.