Toronto Maple Leafs All-Decade Team Roundtable

My Team

Forwards

MacArthur-Matthews-Kessel

van Riemsdyk-Tavares-Marner

Lupul-Kadri-Nylander

Hyman-Grabovski-Kapanen

Scratches-Kulemin, Bozak

First Line

Clark MacArthur is a player who seems to go under the radar as a Leaf, but he was a very effective player in his time.

He may be the best top-6 caliber player who also is capable of being reliable defensively that the Leafs had throughout the decade.

Putting him on the second line with Kessel was an easy decision because he can make up for Kessel’s poor defensive game along with being able to contribute offensively as we saw when he had a 62 point season in 2011-2012.

Auston Matthews is a “no-brainer” choice for me, he is the franchise center of this team and winning the lottery in 2016 is undoubtedly one of the best moments of the decade.

Matthews is the kind of goal scorer that we rarely see and has been the best 5v5 goal scorer in the league since he joined the league and he has the ability to win multiple Rocket Richard trophies throughout his career.

Not only is Matthews a one of a kind goal scorer but he seems to have more to his game than other goal scorers like Ovechkin or Kessel, with his defensive game improving year to year.

Phil Kessel was the heartbeat of this team when he was on it, he was the only player who was able to score on a consistent basis.

He carried the offense at an unbelievable rate with barely any help, from 2011-12 to 2013-14 Kessel had the most point out of any winger in the league playing with Tyler Bozak at 5v5 and on a powerplay with only 3 players that would make a top powerplay on the majority of teams.

Second line

James van Riemsdyk is probably the most talented offensive left-winger the Leafs have seen throughout the decade.

He has a real knack for finishing and for my money is among the best net-front presences in the NHL throughout the whole decade.

JVR is easily a player who deserves on any team’s top powerplay, hence why the Flyers paid him as such. At 5v5 when JVR was put in the right situation with Bozak on the third line, he excelled in that role creating a remarkable amount of high danger chances, he was the driving force of one of the best third lines in the league at the time.

John Tavares is self-explanatory, he is a superstar talent who is easily among the best players the decade has seen.

To me, Tavares’ 40-goal season is not even his biggest accomplishment, I would put gifting Matt Moulson and Kyle Okposo mega contracts that they clearly do not deserve when away from Tavares himself as his biggest accomplishment.

I do not even have to end there in terms of his accomplishments but I will just for the sake of Habs fans sanity (Tavares did not grant Montreal a meeting).

Mitch Marner is the hometown ice-cream eating star. Marner has been a special playmaker since he has joined the league, now becoming a consistent over-point per game player, it does not seem like him being the next Patrick Kane is out of the realm of possibility.

I like to point to what Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy had to say about him in the 2019 playoffs, “When he’s got it in open ice he’s a threat to shoot or pass. He seems to see everything going on & the game slows down for him. I don’t enjoy playing against him, because he’s a good player, but I enjoy watching him play the game.”

Third Line

Joffrey Lupul was an easy choice for the third line winger on this team, with technically two over point-per-game seasons under his belt with the Toronto Maple Leafs Lupul was a much-needed addition to the offense when he was acquired from Anaheim.

Lupul was a talented offensive player who had a good mix of shooting and playmaking talent to play with the likes of Kessel.

Nazem Kadri is the heartbeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs decade, his decision as the third line center is a no-brainer.

Kadri did so much for the organization playing through both regimes of the decade, it was very tough to see him traded this past summer. Kadri is a player who any team would we more than willing to take on as a second-line center who is able to take tough matchups, drive play and be one of the most effective powerplay players.

Kadri will always be underrated in terms of his ability to drive offense no matter who he played with whether it be total drags or not.

William Nylander the Swedish-Calgary born player who is everyone’s favorite player.

This may have been the easiest decision among the whole all-decade team, no player even comes close to his capability and talent.

The mix of his play-driving along with his playmaking and the new emergence of a lethal shot makes for him to have the ability to be an elite player if he is not already which he is in my eyes.

Fourth line

Zach Hyman is an appreciated player throughout the whole fanbase, even given the fanbase is the biggest in all of hockey, I doubt anyone in the fanbase has any negative feelings towards him.

Hyman is clearly not a finisher as we can note, but he is among the best forecheckers in the league and has proven to provide superb play-driving value to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Mikhail Grabovski is easily one of the most underrated players on this team, the center anchored himself as an excellent second-line player who was successful in his role.

Grabovski being bought out may have been one of the worst decisions of the decade, not that he was ultra-successful but he was a good NHL player that the team could have used, just take a look at the roster. His one shootout goal is one that I will never forget, I even tried it when I was playing hockey myself, it is an all-time favorite to me.

Kasperi Kapanen the speedy Finnish winger, who has had his own fair share of goals I will never forget that would make my best moments of the decade.

Kapanen is a player who has had a lot of success in the NHL besides when he is put in the top-6 where he drives a lot of hate towards his play.

But Kapanen is a one-man entry machine and has a good shot to go with it making him a valuable player to have. Kapanen also has a lot of success on the penalty kill slowly making himself as among the most lethal penalty killers in the league with the likes of Michael Grabner.

Scratches

Nikolay Kulemin was a great winger who was able to successfully round out the top-6 for the Leafs in the early parts of the decade.

Kulemin even had a 30-goal season in his time here, which don’t forget was even harder in 2010 where the average S% would be a lot lower than it currently is. Although the 30-goal season was a bit of an anomaly he was still a very effective middle-6 winger.

Tyler Bozak, one of the best college pickups of the decade, is a player who the Leafs were lucky to have on the roster and who was one who I would probably be crucified for if I did not have him on the list.

Bozak was a player who played above his talent level playing on the first line for a lot of the time but nonetheless an effective NHL player that had an underrated passing ability but overrated defensive capability.

Must Mention

Leo Komarov, Andreas Johnsson, and Patrick Marleau

Now we shall move on to the defensive side of things.