The Toronto Maple Leafs’ regular-season roster is starting to come into focus.

The club announced 19 cuts from its training camp roster on Saturday. They released defenceman Raman Hrabarenka from his professional tryout and sent the following 18 players to the American Hockey League’s Toronto Marlies: Goaltenders Antoine Bibeau and Garret Sparks, defencemen Nikolas Brouillard, Travis Dermott, Justin Holl, Viktor Loov, Andrew Nielsen and Rinat Valiev and forwards Rich Clune, Frederik Gauthier, Andreas Johnsson, Kasperi Kapanen, Brendan Leipsic, Tobias Lindberg, Trevor Moore, Kerby Rychel, Colin Smith and Dmytro Timashov.

None of the designations were big surprises but several of the AHL-bound skaters had strong camps and preseasons that should get them a look down the road in the NHL.

Kapanen has looked very good the last couple of weeks, earning praise from head coach Mike Babcock for another strong outing in Friday’s preseason contest against the Detroit Red Wings. He scored twice in the preseason. Gauthier, still a work in progress, looked quicker this fall and was given more responsibility in the defensive zone and on the penalty kill.

On the defensive side, Nielsen and Dermott built upon strong development camps and rookie tournaments to be standout contributors on the blueline in the preseason. Nielsen has looked especially strong, showing off two-way hockey sense and physicality – he scrapped in Saskatoon with Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Dermott took more time to find a groove, but by Friday’s game he was singled out by Babcock. Valiev, a blueliner who played 10 games with the Maple Leafs last year, was paired with Frank Corrado in the preseason and showed real strides.

Many of the young forwards didn’t get much opportunity to play in exhibition – Moore, Johnsson and Smith all did well at the Leafs rookie tournament but saw little playing time the last week. They will bring definite spark to the Marlies this season with their potential for offensive production.

Rychel’s first exhibition contest ended abruptly – he was ejected Sept. 26 versus Ottawa for fighting early in the first period. Since then he’s played his game, getting to the net and showing good awareness with the puck. Adding consistency in the defensive zone and developing his two-way game will help him at the next level.

In net, Bibeau and Sparks both had solid preseasons but Frederik Andersen and Jhonas Enroth are already established as the NHL tandem. They could each see time in the NHL if injuries crop up.

With 29 players remaining on the roster, the Maple Leafs face the Red Wings again Saturday night. Babcock hinted on Friday a couple regulars wouldn’t be ready to play due to injury. Forward Nikita Soshnikov and defender Andrew Campbell will both start in the AHL, and Brandon Prust remains with the club on his PTO.

Toronto needs to be at its 23-man roster before Wednesday’s season opener against the Ottawa Senators.