Elvis Merzlikins and Miles Wood: Why the Maple Leafs Took Them On

Elvis Merzlikins joins the Maple Leafs, but not the lineup

Elvis Merzlikins is a Maple Leaf, and he will not be anywhere near the crease for a while. The 32-year-old goaltender came to Toronto from Columbus on Monday as part of the Kirill Marchenko trade, along with 31-year-old winger Miles Wood. Merzlikins had shoulder surgery in August and has no public timeline for his return. Wood had just cleared waivers the day before. Neither player was the point of the deal. Both were the price of making it.

To understand the six-player Marchenko trade, you have to understand why Columbus wanted these two contracts gone and why Toronto could afford to say yes.

Where Merzlikins' shoulder stands

Columbus announced on Aug. 20 that Merzlikins had undergone successful surgery on his shoulder the day before. He had told the team a few weeks earlier that he felt discomfort during off-season workouts, and after an MRI, surgery was judged the best option. The Blue Jackets said he would be re-evaluated in a few weeks. No return date followed. He did not play in the pre-season.

Toronto is expected to place him on long-term injured reserve. That means he is out at least 10 games and 24 days by rule, and in practical terms likely much longer. Nobody should be pencilling him into the goaltending rotation before the winter.

Merzlikins is in the final season of a five-year contract carrying a $5.4-million cap hit. Columbus retained 18 per cent of it as part of the trade, which leaves roughly $4.43 million on Toronto's books. He becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Why an injured goalie made the trade work

Here is the logic from Columbus' side. A team that intends to make the playoffs does not want $5.4 million tied up in a goaltender who cannot play and whose contract ends in June. Moving him with retention lets the Blue Jackets redirect that money. Wood's $2.5 million, running through 2028-29, was another contract Columbus had made clear it wanted off the books — it waived him on Saturday for exactly that reason.

From Toronto's side, the calculation is different. An injured player on LTIR does not consume cap space the way an active one does; he sits in the accounting of how far over the ceiling a team may go. The Leafs were already operating that way with Max Domi and Marshall Rifai, as we explained in our breakdown of the $1,500 opening-night roster trick. Merzlikins becomes another line in that same ledger.

In other words, Chayka took on Columbus' problem because Toronto's cap structure can carry it this season and it expires next summer. That was the cost of getting Marchenko without adding more young talent to the package.

What Merzlikins means for Bobrovsky and Stolarz

In the short term, nothing. Sergei Bobrovsky is expected to start Tuesday's opener against Montreal. Anthony Stolarz is the 1B, and the club has planned a split built around back-to-backs that gives Bobrovsky somewhere around 40 to 50 starts. Samuel Hlavaj and Artur Akhtyamov are with the Marlies as depth.

In the medium term, Merzlikins is insurance. Toronto's crease is built on a 38-year-old and a goaltender coming off a difficult season. Projection models have been harsh on it, ranking the Leafs near the bottom of the league in expected goals saved. If either Bobrovsky or Stolarz gets hurt in January, a healthy Merzlikins is a veteran with NHL starter experience who can walk into the rotation, which is a lot more than Toronto had on Sunday.

He also has an obvious motivation. He will be a free agent next summer, and the best way to set up his next contract is a strong spring in a big market. A goalie playing for a deal is not the worst third option to have.

What happens to Miles Wood

Wood is the simpler case. He is a fast, physical left winger entering his 12th NHL season, originally a New Jersey Devils draft pick who also played in Colorado before Columbus. Because he cleared waivers on Sunday, Toronto can assign him to the Toronto Marlies without exposing him again. If he goes down, only part of his $2.5-million cap hit — reportedly about $1.275 million — stays on the NHL books.

That makes him a depth piece rather than a lineup piece. Toronto's bottom six is already crowded with Chayka's summer signings: Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime and Zack MacEwen, with Easton Cowan and Dakota Joshua competing for time. Wood's speed and willingness to go to the net would give Hiller an injury call-up with more than a decade of NHL experience, which is useful across an 84-game season.

The less charitable read is that Toronto now carries two more years of Wood after this one. If he spends most of that time in the AHL, the partial cap charge becomes a small but persistent tax on Chayka's flexibility, especially in 2027-28 when Marchenko's $12.5-million extension begins.

The Steven Lorentz and Emil Andrae side

Going the other way, Steven Lorentz had cleared waivers last week and been assigned to the Marlies, the cap move we covered in our waiver breakdown. Emil Andrae, a young left-shot defenceman, had been in the mix on the blue line in camp. Both give Columbus NHL-level depth, which is what Waddell said he wanted.

For Toronto, Lorentz and Andrae were organizational depth. Wood and Merzlikins replace them in that role, older and more expensive but with more NHL experience.

Who Elvis Merzlikins is when healthy

It is worth remembering what Toronto is getting if the shoulder heals cleanly. Merzlikins is a Latvian goaltender who spent seven seasons in Columbus and was the Blue Jackets' starter for most of them. He is an athletic, aggressive goalie who plays well outside his crease and is at his best when he is seeing a lot of rubber, which he did for years behind young and inconsistent Columbus teams.

His numbers in Columbus were uneven, and a fair evaluation has to account for the defence in front of him. He was rarely the problem on bad Blue Jackets teams and rarely the solution either. The more relevant point for Toronto is experience: he has handled a starter's workload before, which is something Joseph Woll's trade to Philadelphia over the summer left the Leafs without behind their top two.

If he returns in the second half and is anything close to his Columbus baseline, he is the best third goaltender Toronto has carried in years. If the shoulder lingers, he is an expiring contract that disappears in July. That asymmetry is why taking him was a manageable ask.

What's next

Watch three things. First, the formal LTIR placement for Merzlikins and the first real update on his shoulder, which will tell us whether he is a December option or a March one. Second, whether Wood is assigned to the Marlies this week or kept as a 13th or 14th forward. Third, what Toronto does with its goaltending if Bobrovsky struggles early — Merzlikins' timeline could shape whether Chayka goes shopping or waits.

Neither player changes the headline of Monday's trade. Both explain why it cost what it did. You can track every Leafs contract, including the Merzlikins retention, on our contracts page.