Toronto Maple Leafs: Another Year of Learning as Summer Ends

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had another off-season to prepare for training camp.

While the Toronto Maple Leafs have a youthful team, it’s important to note that much of their young core are heading into their third full NHL season.  They aren’t rookies anymore.  Connor Brown, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner have over 500 combined NHL games between them.

Older players like Freddie Anderson, Nazem Kadri, Jake Gardiner and Morgan Reilly are experienced veterans at this point.  Whereas alumni, Ron Hainsey and Patrick Marleau represent the wise, old guard.

This year should be a good year for returning Leafs who study theory-of-puck-itivity (a play on theory of relativity).

Freshmen (1^st years)

This wouldn’t be a school themed Leafs article if I didn’t discuss the nervousness some first year Leafs are likely feeling before beginning their new program.

Imagine you’ve been studying theory-of-puck-itivity your whole life, and now, in a couple weeks you have a chance to show your skills off to the top professors (Coach Babcock) and deans (Brandon Shanahan and Kyle Dubas).  Naturally, you’d be excited, and also a bit anxious.  Players like Andreas Johnsson, Garret Sparks, Tyler Ennis, Par Lindholm and Justin Holl are all battling for their spot in the opening line up as the clock ticks on their careers.

Dropouts

Tyler Bozak, Roman Polak, James van Rymsdyk, and Leo Komorov no longer play for the Leafs.  In the end, we couldn’t afford to keep them, and they were veterans we needed to release in order to give our younger players ice time.  The Leafs also let go of Dominick Moore and Miro Aaltonen while the ongoing struggle for a reliable 4^th C continues.

Openings at the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey academy of excellence?

The Leafs first three lines are all but locked up with the only question being how do you juggle the ice time between Marleau, Hyman, Brown with the emerging Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen?  I expect it to look something like:

1^st = Hyman / Matthews / Nylander

2^nd = Marleau / Tavares / Marner

3^rd = Kapanen / Kadri / Brown or Johnson

The 4^th line is more of a question mark.  Although I want Josh Leivo to crack the line up, I don’t expect it.  I think Leivo will be an injury fill in for Tyler Ennis, and that they may alternate scratches. Par Lindholm seems to be everyone’s expected fourth line centre, and since there are more players than spots in the ‘top nine’ the fourth line is likely to feature at least one player who deserves a better spot in the lineup.

Any Toronto Marlie forward looking to play for the Maple Leafs this year will be in tough to make it.

Defense

While the Toronto Maple Leafs forward lines are somewhat set – at least the main pieces – the defense is just a load of question marks.  Obviously Rielly and Gardiner are the Leafs two best defenseman, but will they end up paired together?  Will Babcock give more ice time to the Leafs best defensive defenseman (Carrick)?  Will Justin Holl or Timothy Liljegren crack the lineup?

The Leafs can’t possibly continue to play Ron Hiansey so high up in the lineup, can they?  Will Nikita Zaitsev find a place on a team that already has three superior puck moving defenseman? What kind of steps will Travis Dermott take?  Will the Leafs address their obvious need for improvement on the blueline?

We’ll have to wait and see.

As for goaltending, Freddick Anderson’s job is obviously secure.  But expect Sparks and Pickard to battle hard for their chance to take the role of back up goalie away from Curtis McElhinney.  At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Sparks pulls it off.

Thanks for reading!