When the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Jim Hiller, just about everyone in the fan base was shocked. The reaction amongst fans was Jim Hiller? That's who we are trusting to lead the next era of Maple Leafs hockey? Nevertheless, Leafs Nation put their faith into him and hoped for the best.
Now, Toronto is 18 games into the season and sits second last in the Atlantic Division with an 8-9-2 record, and it's fair to say that fans are not happy about it. There have been a ton of questions throughout the first 18 games about if Hiller is managing his lineup correctly, and that has only gotten worse now that they are dealing with a slew of injuries.
So, let's take a look at a few ways that Hiller can set up the lineup to try and get them back into the win column.
McKenna needs to be with Matthews
This actually should be the easiest change to the lineup that Hiller makes; Gavin McKenna needs to be on the top line with Auston Matthews. Especially with both Kirill Marchenko and Jack Roslovic out with injuries, they need someone else on that line to match his skill. That's nothing against Colton Sissons, but he isn't that guy. Hiller should start Matthews with McKenna and Easton Cowan on his wings and use their youth, skill, and chemistry to provide an offensive spark for the group.
That means that there is an open spot on the second line alongside John Tavares and William Nylander, and the most obvious choice there is Nick Paul. He played well with Nylander when Tavares was injured and can give them another center/wing option for Tavares.
With Sissons being moved off the top line, that gives him a spot on the third line as the centerman if he is good to go after leaving the game against the New Jersey Devils with his own injury. His line mates should be Bo Groulx and Vinni Letteri, with Roslovic out, which opens the door to another roster move, and they should recall Groulx.
Dakota Joshua hasn't looked good in his first handful of games; he looks slow and out of sync with the rest of the group. Plus, with the NHL's tagging rules, it makes him a prime candidate to trade. Toronto currently only has roughly $650,000 in tagging space left, which affects who they can call up. If they part with Joshua, it could clear up anywhere from 25%-100% of his $3.25 million contract.
As for the fourth line, that should be unchanged until they truly start to struggle. They've been one of the best lines for the Maple Leafs all season, and so they shouldn't be broken up.
Ben Danford needs to be given an opportunity
Now that we've covered the forwards, we are moving on to the blue line, and again, there is no one very obvious roster move that the Maple Leafs need to make; they need to call up Ben Danford. However, the caveat is they need to clear tagging room, which is why it was suggested earlier that the club work on trading Joshua's contract to clear space to call up Danford.
Right now, they are without Morgan Rielly, who has been great to start the season; Chris Tanev needs planned nights off, and they are using a third pairing of Dakota Mermis and Cole McWard.
If they can clear space to call up Danford, it would be a great opportunity to play alongside either Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Darren Raddysh. It should have been him who was called up rather than the aforementioned McWard. He is considered to be the future of the blue line but yet hasn't been given the chance to play at the NHL level even with the injuries.
The pairings on the blue line should be as followed:
Jake McCabe - Darren Raddysh
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Ben Danford
Dakota Mermis - Troy Stecher
This defence core allows there to be a player that the coach relies on, on each pairing. Plus, pairings one and two have two offensive-minded defenders on them to help with breakouts. There is no disrespect to McWard, but it should have been Danford who was recalled; his arrival could have provided a spark for the club.
Unfortunately, shortly after this was all written it was reported that Danford has broken his wrist and is going to be out for a significant amount of time. Just our luck.
Stolarz and Bobrovsky just need to make saves
Now, we've reached the crease. It's simple really, Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz just need to make saves. There's been times throughout games where a goal goes in that just cannot beat an NHL netminder. That needs to be fixed, quickly.
This is the tandem that the organization felt could help lead them to the playoffs, and right now, it's doing quite the opposite; they are costing them games. It truly makes you wonder if they made a mistake trading Joseph Woll, because oftentimes he was the goalie that they relied on to help turn things around. Unfortunately, he isn't with the team anymore, so someone needs to step up and be the goalie for the organization, or else it may be time to consider giving Artur Akhtyamov a chance to start a few games and see if they get a different result.
At the end of the day, there is a lot of heat in Toronto, so the players, the coaches and the front office need to follow in their captains' advice and "look in the mirror." " Or, we could be in for a similar season as we had a year ago.
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