Toronto Maple Leafs: Optimal Line-up (Roundtable)

The Toronto Maple Leafs are starting to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the Atlantic Division (except Tampa).

A recent win in Calgary  to start their western road swing puts the Toronto Maple Leafs record at 16-9-1 and well on the path to making the Playoffs.  We’re almost one-third through the season, and the Toronto Maple Leafs continue to operate with far more forwards than are strictly necessary.

This means that we see things like Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Patrick Marleau or Connor Brown on the fourth line.  It means that the Leafs have a valuable NHL player   – Kasperi Kapanen – in the AHL.  Not to mention Josh Leiov and Nikita Soshnikov who get paid tons of money to watch the games from above.

The Leaf unusually deep group of forwards has allowed coach Mike Babcock to freely experiment with the lines, and we’ve seen some unusual combos.  Recently we saw Matt Martin on the first line.  Then we saw Matt Martin in the press-box.  We saw Auston Matthews tried with as many as three different right wingers.

This depth is a great thing for Toronto.  Not only does it give the Leafs some leeway to try and add to their roster, it gives the coach tons of opportunities to experiment, tons of options to specify his team to the opponent, and it creates internal competition for jobs.  Other than the occasional hurt feeling, it’s difficult to envision any negatives to this situation: The Leafs are a great team and part of what makes them so great is their depth, and the unpredictability that such a malleable lineup offers.

With this in mind, the staff of Editor in Leaf met up recently at our headquarters and convened around our famously round table like a bunch of hockey obsessed knights.  Our leader – just a guy in a knock-off Carlton the Bear costume –  asked us to submit what we thought were our optimal lineups for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

So kick back, take in our ideas and then tell us yours.  As always, we thank you for your participation and for reading in the first place.

Andrew Boehmer

It’s always tough answering a question like this, but I’m going to give it my best go.

I’m a big fan of all the internal competition, so before I break down my optimal lines, I’m going to tell you who I think are competing with each other for specific jobs. And just so nobody gets their hopes up, Kasperi Kapanen will not be in my lineup, for a couple reasons for that will follow.

One, he’s similar (but not as good) to the play style of William Nylander and Mitchell Marner and two, he’s waiver exempt. Just leave him as is. I believe that Josh Leivo and Nikita Soshnikov are really battling for a spot, but you all know how that one ends for me. Leivo wins, hands down.

Here’s the famous Mike Babcock line. “We didn’t get Patty to play centre.” Well, things change and I’m quite liking him at the centre position over Dominic Moore, as much as I am a fan of Moore. So we’re going to leave Marleau at centre and scratch Moore, let’s dress the best available players within reason. Obviously sliding Marleau to centre and scratching Moore creates a roster spot, that spot goes to the aforementioned Leivo. Now, the curious case of Matt Martin isn’t all the curious to me, he’ll suit up 10/10 if I were making the call.

It’s time to show you my optimal utility lines

Hyman –  Matthews –  Marner   van Riemsdyk -Bozak –  Nylander  Komarov –  Kadri –  Leivo Martin –  Marleau –  Brown            Rielly –  Hainsey           Gardiner – Zaitsev           Borgman –  Carrick

Nothing’s being changed for special teams or defenders wise. What I am changing is some of the line makeup up front, starting with the Matthews line. I’m ready to see Matthews and Marner connect, don’t even think for one second that Hyman doesn’t deserve to be there, he does 100%.

Seeing as though Marner’s on the first, let’s try Willie with the Bozak line and see what’s cooking. The third and fourth line gets interesting. I’d like to see Leivo play on that shutdown line with Komarov and Kadri, adding some additional firepower and also being instructed by two veterans in the process, quite possibly transforming his style of play to something the Leafs could utilize long-term. With that move, I’ve put Brown on the fourth line (not really a fourth line) with Martin and Patty. Every line can score, three out of four can defend and with the help that Willie will give on Bozie’s line, maybe that’ll be four lines of defence.

Those are my thoughts, not worth much, but take this read as an enjoyable one, nothing to be overly offended about.

Josh Tessler

Lately, Mike Babcock has been acting like The League’s Rodney Ruxin with his constant tinkering of the Toronto Maple Leafs lines. He’s been making changes to his lines prior to each and every game.

For this post, I’ll pretend that I’m Mike Babcock and I’ll identify the lines that make the most sense in my mind. For the top line, I’d put Auston Matthews together with Mitch Marner and Zach Hyman. If Hyman, Marner and Matthews were together on the top line, the Leafs would have a quite speedy play-making line. With the Leafs’ first period defensive troubles, having a speedy line with the likes of Hyman and Marner would be beneficial as the Leafs look to bring the puck up into the offensive zone.

For the second line, I’d go with Babcock’s current second line. Patrick Marleau, Nazem Kadri and Leo Komarov have strong chemistry and have been playing great hockey as of late. I wouldn’t touch this line at all, unless the chemistry dies out.

The third line is where I’d experiment the most. I’d pair Josh Leivo, William Nylander and Nikita Soshnikov. Soshnikov and Leivo are both rising Leaf stars and might be a good fit with Nylander. Nylander has been snake-bit lately, and I think that if the Leafs move him to centre it might provide a resurgence to his offensive skill-set.

My fourth line would be James Van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Connor Brown. Van Riemsdyk and Bozak have been playing side-by-side for a decent amount of the season and I think that Babcock should continue to have them play together. The presence of Brown gives the fourth line a solid puck-mover and grinder. Both attributes of Brown’s play are highly important as Bozak will need help moving the puck out of the defensive zone and into Van Riemsdyk’s hands.

D.J Llewellyn

My optimal Leafs lineup has more to do with who isn’t playing, rather than who is.

To start, Martin, Moore, and Soshnikov are on the bench. The fourth line will be centred by Miro Aaltonen with Josh Leivo and Kasperi Kapanen on the wings. The other wingers can move up and down the lineup as needed. Until JVR and or Bozak are traded there isn’t much to do. Hyman can be split from Matthews, though.

On Defence, I’d keep Rielly and Hainsey together, play Gardiner with Carrick and play Borgman with Zaitsev. Gardiner and Zaitsev are having a rough time right now so I think it’s better to split them. Carrick has played well with Gardiner in the past and Zaitsev could use some easier minutes. He’s been playing too much. There’s little point in going after another defence man unless they’re a top four player. We have enough players for the bottom pair in case of injury.

As for the goalies, I’d keep them the same but play Andersen a little less. It’s a long year and keeping him fresh is important. If McElhinney isn’t cutting it then call up Pickard or Sparks.

James Tanner

I think the Leafs are one of the best teams in the NHL, and I think that their team is so deep that you can pretty much mix and match it anyway that you want and get something decent.

That said, if I was in charge I’d sit  Dominic Moore and Roman Polak pretty much every game.  The fact is, they routinely get thoroughly destroyed by the competition and the Leafs tend to do poorly when they are on the ice.

As for Matt Martin, I don’t mind him.  The Leafs need to play Auston Matthews 20 + minutes per game more than they need to have four balanced lines.  It’s nice to have a scoring threat from the fourth line, but something like Leivo-Marleau-Brown only takes ice time away from the other lines, and I’m just not convinced whatever edge you get over the other teams eight minutes of fourth line ice time is worth it.  Matt Martin doesn’t hurt you and you don’t have to play him a ton, so he’s fine for me on the fourth line.

I think the most important thing to do is make William Nylander a centre and start running out Matthews-Nylander-Kadri 1-2-3 down the middle.  Trade Tyler Bozak to the Penguins for Ian Cole and be done with it.  The Leafs would be unstoppable with this line-up of centres.  In this case, I call up Mirro Aaltonen and have him play centre on the fourth line.  Marleau also has to play on the fourth line, but that’s because I want Kapanen’s defense on a line with JVR.   Marleau can play both special teams, so I don’t think a little less 5v5 ice-time for him is a huge deal.

I also keep JVR (no trade) and re-unite the Leafs best defense pairing from last season.  My line-up looks like this:

Hyman – Matthews – Marner Komarov – Kadri – Brown JVR  – Nylander –  Kapanen Martin – Aaltonen – Marleau Rielly – Hainsey Gardiner – Carrick Cole/Borgman – Zaitsev

I think that’s pretty good.  And Leivo gets to play for Martin once in a while.  I’d also be open to an  upgrade on Hainsey in the top four, although I can’ t say his play has been anything but excellent since being signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I think the only thing standing between the Leafs and the Stanley Cup is putting Nylander at centre and getting the extra speed and defense that Kapanen provides into the line-up.