If you're looking for an indication -- beyond talk, because talk is cheap -- that the Maple Leafs want to win this year, just look at the team's cut-throat approach to the waiver wire.

There is no sentimentality.

Placed on waivers already were a pair of decent veterans: Brooks Laich and Colin Greening. Added: Milan Michalek. All three are, as coach Mike Babcock might say, "good men."

They are serviceable NHLers if a bit beyond their prime. In the right circumstances, any could be taking a regular shift in the league. Those circumstances might include a return to clutch-and-grab hockey. But they don't fit Babcock's vision for this team. It's all youth and speed and forecheck. That's why Connor Brown moves up to the second line.

The cold hard truth is all three are more valuable to the Leafs elsewhere than here.

There's minimal salary cap advantage to having those veterans with the Marlies ($925,000 per player). But a couple of hundred thousand here and a couple of hundred thousand there can add up. If we look at waiver-wire pickup Ben Smith ($675,000) as a straight-up transaction for Michalek, then the Leafs save $250,000.

Don't be angry at management for acquiring the over-priced three. Taking on Greening and Michalek was the price required to unload Dion Phaneuf's contract, the final piece to be extracted to start over. Taking on Laich was the price to acquire defenceman Connor Carrick.

No one is necessarily saying the Leafs are a playoff team. But Babcock is looking for six points every five games, that's 96-98 points over 82, also known as a playoff pace. So that is how they shall be measured.

And veterans now know -- if they didn't already -- that no job is safe.

Down with the Marlies there are a bunch of prospects who don't want to be forgotten:

-Brendan Leipsic leads the AHL in scoring with nine points (two goals, seven assists)

-Kasperi Kapanen -- paired with Frederik Gauthier and Nikita Soshnikov -- was AHL player of the week and has seven points (three goals, four assists).

-Byron Froese is tied for third in the AHL with four goals.

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-As for goalies, Antoine Bibeau is 3-0 with a 1.34 goals-against average and .949 save percentage.

GOT A QUESTION? Email me at askkevinmcgran@gmail.com and I'll answer it in Friday's mailbag.