I’m fairly certain I’ve never seen a training camp like the one the Maple Leafs are having this season.



After their second pre-season game against Ottawa on Tuesday, coach Mike Babcock explained that he wasn’t going to be making any cuts for the rest of camp. Even with 48 players on the roster, everyone was staying, divided up into two full teams that would practice separately.



There’s a reason. The Leafs have an NHL-high eight exhibition games to play, and three sets of those are back-to-back games. Babcock doesn’t want to put anyone — rookie or vet — through a back-to-back in meaningless games if he doesn’t have to, which means he needs to carry two teams of players.



If he stays true to his word, that means we won’t get any official answers about the Leafs’ team until Oct. 1 at the earliest. They have to be down to the 23-man limit and cap compliant by the afternoon of Oct. 3, the day they’ll travel to Winnipeg for the season opener.



Will not having something resembling the final team together for any of training camp affect the Leafs’ group cohesion? I doubt it. Babcock is already playing players with the linemates and defence partners that he envisions them skating with to start the season.



He is also thinking long and hard about who will be on which special teams units, as evidenced by the talk the other day that he wants to get Patrick Marleau out there with Auston Matthews and William Nylander on the power play soon.



Sorting through this many players every day at camp is a bit unique, but what you have to try and keep in mind is that most of those participating don’t have a shot at the roster. There are only 29 players with full locker stalls in the main dressing room at the practice rink; that’s the group from which the final team is going to be drawn.



By my count, 16 of the 48 players remaining have zero shot at making this team out of camp. Another six players are real long shots, and a seventh — Roman Polak — could start the year hurt.



Here’s how the Leafs’ camp roster currently breaks down by position: ‌‌‌



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