Time to take a look at the Toronto Maple Leafs current roster.
About a month ago, I predicted what the Toronto Maple Leafs roster might look like come puck drop in October.
The gist of the article was that the Leafs don’t really need a major line overhaul, just some minor tweaks here and there.
I showed what the lines looked like as of their last playoff game and just to be on one page, I’ll show it again here.
Zach Hyman – Auston Matthews – William Nylander
Leo Komarov – Nazem Kadri – Connor Brown
James van Riemsdyk – Tyler Bozak – Mitchell Marner
Matt Martin – Brian Boyle – Kasperi Kapanen
Matt Hunwick – Morgan Rielly
Jake Gardiner – Nikita Zaitsev
Martin Marincin – Connor Carrick
Frederik Andersen
Curtis McElhinney
Two notable absences are Nikita Soshnikov and Roman Polak but I expect the latter of the two to be gone pretty soon.
Moving on.
Current Roster
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Okay, now let’s take a look at where we are right now and included below are recent acquisitions and basically, anyone that could see action next season.
I’m excluding Hunwick and Polak because they’re unrestricted free agents and the chances of either being resigned are pretty slim.
I’ll also leave McElhinney in there because I really hope he’ll be back for another year.
Lastly, Boyle is the one wild card, so he’s going to stay as well because I believe the Leafs could and should overpay him for a year.
However, that’s just a matter of will he sign a short-term contract.
Hyman – Matthews – Nylander
Komarov – Kadri – Brown
van Riemsdyk – Bozak – Marner
Martin – Boyle – Kapanen
Rielly –
Gardiner – Zaitsev
Marincin – Carrick
Andersen
McElhinney
We’re obviously missing a right-handed pairing for Rielly.
Peculiar.
Here are the guys that could pop up onto the lineup next season.
- Eric Fehr
- Nikita Soshnikov
- Ben Smith
- Josh Leivo
- Alexey Marchenko
- Miro Aaltonen
- Carl Grundström
- Calle Rosén
- Andreas Borgman
- Travis Dermott
- Frederik Gauthier
- Jeremy Bracco
- Andrew Nielsen
- Brendan Leipsic
Remember, one of the guys above will potentially be lost in the Expansion Draft.
I say potentially because it could be someone not on that list, but I highly doubt it.
Final Thoughts
My final thoughts are that the Leafs could press forward with the group they have, but I don’t think this is a contending team quite yet.
That’s not to say that this couldn’t be the makeup for one, it’ll just take more time then this next season.
If there’s a good chance to externally fill that spot to the right of Rielly, then it should be done.
If not, let’s see what we have internally after some more time.