Toronto Maple Leafs: Examining THN’s 2020 Vision
Have you wondered what the Toronto Maple Leafs team will look like in three years?
Thanks to Matt Larkin of The Hockey News, we have an official projection in regards to what the Toronto Maple Leafs team might look like then.
It’s been an ongoing series where he looks at each team alphabetically and projects their roster for the 2019-20 season.
Interesting series to say the least.
Anyways, the Leafs turn came around the other day and that’s what we’ll be looking at in this article.
I actually have a couple more articles on the way that’ll be dissecting THN’s predictions involving some Leafs players, so stay tuned.
For now, let’s get to the article.
Quote
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Before Matt went to his projected roster, he did a write-up analysis on the team and I liked what I read.
Here’s one quote from the article that stuck out to me, ironically the opening sentence.
"The Toronto Maple Leafs’ long-term outlook has changed dramatically. The franchise was a laughing stock a few years ago but, thanks to a total regime overhaul under Brendan Shanahan and several years of drafting in the top third of the first round, Toronto has one of the league’s best, deepest youth crops."
I like that, but I think I’ll just change one thing there.
Toronto has the league’s best, deepest youth crops.
There’s no reservations (ifs), restrictions (ands) or excuses (buts) about that, in my opinion.
I implore you to read his entire article, though, because that one quote doesn’t do it justice and is hard to get the whole picture from just that.
2020 Vision
Okay, now I’ll get his projected roster down.
Kasperi Kapanen – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Andreas Johnsson – Nazem Kadri – Mitchell Marner
Zach Hyman – Adam Brooks – Jeremy Bracco
Carl Grundstrom – Frederik Gauthier – Connor Brown
Morgan Rielly- Nikita Zaitsev
Jake Gardiner – Timothy Liljegren
Travis Dermott – Connor Carrick
Frederik Andersen
Garret Sparks
For the most part, I like Matt’s lineup here.
Just keep in mind that he’s not taking into account potential trades, free agent pickups, anything to do with the waiver wire or yet to be drafted players.
Lot’s of variations could and probably will occur between now and then.
The one thing that’s worth noting is that Matt did address the Leafs need for an improved blueline, but he also left out guys like Calle Rosén and Andreas Borgman.
Interesting.
Continued
Maybe the recent news about Mike Babcock and Lou Lamoriello investigating KHL defender Igor Ozhiganov is a nod to the future.
He’s a right handed defenseman who could compete for a spot if acquired by the Leafs after his contract expires with CSKA Moscow at the end of the 2017-18 season.
That’d be good timing because Carrick’s contract expires at the end of the 2017-18 season as well.
I’m not a big Carrick fan and I already like what I see with Ozhiganov.
Maybe the Leafs don’t resign Carrick and do sign Ozhiganov, a cheaper and quite possibly better option.
Think about it, Zaitsev signed a one-year entry-level contract with a cap hit of $925,000 and an AAV of $1.775 million.
Right after his contract expired with CSKA Moscow too (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).
He went on to outperform that deal and was signed to a seven-year deal with an annual cap of $4.5 million.
Not too shabby.