Report: Major development with two of the Leafs' biggest prospects

Last week Toronto Maple Leafs fans were pleased to learn that two of the team's top prospects, Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan, were up for consideration to join Team Canada for the upcoming World Junior Championships in Sweden starting December 26th.

Last night though, fans were overjoyed to learn that not only had Minten and Cowan both cracked the team's official roster, but that both players will be playing prominent roles with the team. Judging by how they lined up last night for their exhibition match, it looks like Cowan will be playing on the top line with top NHL prospects Conor Geekie and Matt Savoie, while Minten will be playing with projected 2024 1st overall pick Macklin Celebrini and 2022 1st rounder Jordan Dumais.

While Minten was likely always in Team Canada's plans, Leafs fans have to be overjoyed at Cowan's emergence. He looks like he's going to be a big part of Canada's success at this tournament. Again, Leafs fans can't help but feel good about this development.

For more Leafs news from earlier today, read below.

The Toronto Maple Leafs announced this morning that tonight's game against the New York Rangers will featured a delayed start as the team honours captain John Tavares for scoring his 1,000th career NHL point last week.

No specific game time start was announced by the team, but they did announced that the start time would be delayed due to the pre-game ceremony.

What we DO know though is that veteran Leafs defenseman Mark Giordano will not play this evening, as he continues to nurse a broken finger. He hasn't played a game yet in the month of December and today it was revealed that Giordano had been moved to Long-Term Injury Reserve.

It's believed that the veteran Dman was moved from IR to LTIR in order to activate Timothy Liljegren from the IR.

AS for tonight, the pre-gam ceremony will feature Tavares' whole family in celebration of his successful career thus far.

From the team:

Update: The Leafs will be honouring Captain John Tavares tonight for reaching 1,000 career points last week in New York. Tavares and his family will be honoured with a ceremony pre game.

Tavares, of course, hit the 1,000 point milestone last week in an overtime loss to the New York Islanders. Tavares spent the first 9 years of his NHL career with the Islanders before signing with the Leafs as a free agent in the 2018 offseason. Tavares shocked the hockey world back then by signing a 7 year, $77 million contract worth $11 million per season. While he may be a touch overpaid though, you can't fault the Leafs for inking the deal. Tavares has been a great leader for this team and he's put up some productive seasons since joining the team. He has nine goals and 20 points in 29 games to start this season and has put up some of his best seasons in the NHL as a Leaf.

Regardless of how you feel about Tavares given his departure from the Islanders back in 2018, you have to give credit where its due. 1,000 points is an incredible accomplishment.