The Maple Leafs placed defenseman Marshall Rifai on waivers for the purpose of assignment to AHL Toronto on Sunday, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Earlier in the day, the club also announced it’d reassigned defenseman Henry Thrun to the AHL.
Rifai has been on long-term injured reserve since the beginning of the campaign after requiring wrist surgery as a result of a preseason injury. He began skating earlier this month and was initially assigned to the AHL on a long-term injury conditioning stint on Dec. 18, a move that does not require waivers. Now that the roster freeze has lifted, though, the Leafs had to either activate him today or initiate waiver proceedings.
While his conditioning stint began over a week ago, his only appearance came just yesterday against the Utica Comets. The 27-year-old lefty took a minor penalty and had a +1 rating with one shot on goal.
The 6’2″, 211-lb Rifai is now in his fourth season with the Leafs organization. Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Harvard in 2022, he quickly impressed in the minors as a high-end physical shutdown piece and made his NHL debut in 2023-24.
Despite signing a two-year, one-way, $1.55MM extension last year, those two NHL games back in February 2024 stand as the only ones on his career ledger. He’s slotted anywhere between No. 8 and 10 on Toronto’s organizational defensive depth chart for a few years now and has been recalled on multiple occasions to serve as a healthy extra when needed, but it hasn’t resulted in much playing time.
With an excess of left shots on the Leafs’ roster, the path to NHL playing time won’t get much wider for Rifai anytime soon, either. Instead, the Quebec native will look to get his feet under him this season in a familiar AHL environment.
As for Thrun, his demotion is long overdue. Toronto had been operating over the roster limit since activating Chris Tanev from injured reserve on Tuesday. With the freeze lifted today, they can get back to 23 players by returning Thrun to the Marlies.
Acquired from the Sharks last summer for Ryan Reaves, Thrun passed through waivers at the beginning of the year and remained with the AHL club until Dec. 10, when the Leafs summoned him in place of the injured Dakota Mermis. He played in four straight to begin his recall before being scratched for Toronto’s last four. In his stint in the lineup, he posted a -1 rating while averaging 14:52 per game.