Toronto Maple Leafs: Assessing the Leafs Left Wing

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a surplus of talented, skilled, right-wingers, but the same cannot be said for the left side of the ice.

During the draft weekend, left wing James van Riemsdyk was rumored to be a part of the Toronto Maple Leafs trade package to get Travis Hamonic from the New York Islanders. The deal eventually fell through or did not make any sense for the Leafs, so the Isles dealt Hamonic to the Calgary Flames instead.

However, seeing van Riemsdyk’s name in a very plausible trade possibility left many wondering what the Leafs would do if he were to be traded.

The fact of the matter is that the Leafs do not have another skilled left-winger that can replace van Riemsdyk. In any trade involving him, there would need to be another NHL-level left winger coming back Toronto’s way.

Here are the Leafs who played left wing during the playoffs:

James van Riemsdyk (centre – Tyler Bozak)
Leo Komarov (centre – Nazem Kadri)
Zach Hyman (centre – Auston Matthews)
Matt Martin (centre – Brian Boyle)

Help from the Marlies?

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As far as the Marlies go, there are a couple of players who could step in and play fourth line left wing (Martin can also play the right side). Unfortunately, the Leafs lost their most promising and NHL-ready left winger, Brendan Leipsic, to Vegas in the Expansion Draft. He produced 51 points in 49 games with the Marlies this past season and would have been the most likely Marlie to make the jump this fall.

Here are the options the Leafs have in their prospect pool at left wing:

Miro Aaltonen (was in the KHL)
Kerby Rychel
Trevor Moore
Andreas Johnsson
Carl Grundstrom
Dmytro Timashov
Tobias Lindberg

They also have Brooks Laich, Colin Greening, and Milan Michalek, but neither of those three will solve the Leafs problems.

Of the above list, there isn’t a player on there that you could say for certain he could make the team out of training camp. Rychel will push for a spot, though. He had 52 points in 73 games last season. Johnsson could be a call-up during the season, too, having put up decent numbers last season (47 points in 75 games and six points in 11 playoff games).

Timashov and Moore would be long-shots. Both still need at least another year in the AHL, but their development has looked promising so far.

Aaltonen is an interesting name on that list. He played in the KHL this past season and has no North American experience, but he did put up 44 points in 59 games, which isn’t bad. It will be interesting to see how he transitions to playing in the AHL goes.

Resigning Hyman

As of July 1st, 2017, Hyman will be a restricted free agent. The Leafs are huge fans of him and it’s unlikely that he’ll remain unsigned past the start of next season. However, it is possible, and in the event of a dispute, his absence will put the Leafs in an even bigger hole on the left side if van Riemsdyk is also traded.

Outside Help?

The free agent pool is large once again this year, but full of older, on the down-swing NHL veterans. With July 1st just days away, this list is likely to change. A few available left wings (none of which I think the Leafs should target) are Patrick Marleau, Patrick Sharp, Drew Stafford, and Chris Kunitz. All are approaching the ends of their careers (with the exception of Stafford, though he was the opposite of productive this past season). I know the Leafs are looking for veteran help, but they already have one in Matt Martin. There is no need to fill positions with warm bodies. It won’t do them any good.

The other option and potentially more dangerous than signing UFAs, is to offer sheet restricted free agents. The list of RFAs on July 1st is more lucrative, from Ondrej Palat, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tomas Tatar, and Alex Galchenyuk. The problem they may run into here is that the team these players are currently under contract with hold all the power. Offer sheets are rare; only seven have been signed since the 2004-05 lockout, and only one player has changed teams as a result.

Using an offer sheet to bolster their left wing is a huge gamble. They’ll have to be almost a hundred percent sure that the player will sign and their team cannot match it. They also have to ensure that the contract won’t affect their own cap hit in the following years. Since they have to sign Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander and company to extensions in less than three years, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to go in this direction. However, it does remain an option.

Summary

The Leafs have many things on their “to-do list” this summer. They’ve made steps to add another right-shot defenseman, but they now have to address their lack of depth at left wing.

They can look in-house or to free agency, but neither seem like a quick fix. They can also look via a trade, but what could they give up? Well, they do have a lot of right wingers. The Leafs could also try and move some of their right wingers to the left side and see if they can have success there.

There have been so many people screaming that the Leafs need a better defense corps. That is very true. The blueline they iced during the playoffs will not be able to have long success (though the Pittsburgh Penguins did manage to win the Stanley Cup with half an AHL blueline).

Next: Mike Babcock's Success

Toronto’s defense is not the team’s only problem. They’re also going to need to find a backup goalie. Still, the left wing needs help and a lot of it. It will be interesting to see how the Leafs shore up there, as it’s obviously their weakest forward position.

Maybe they won’t do anything at all.

It’s going to be a very interesting off-season.

Statistics sourced from Marlies.ca, Cap-Friendly.com, & Wikipedia – Offer sheet.

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