Adam Brooks re-signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a possible depth piece, or maybe, a full-time player if everything works out.
It’s going to be interesting moving forward with how many forwards the Toronto Maple Leafs have on their roster.
With the top-nine almost set-in-stone, there may be three roster spots up for grabs. And that’s where Brooks looks to make the cut.
Throughout three seasons with the Toronto Marlies, the 24-year-old had 79 points. As Brooks gained more experience in the AHL, he eventually landed a part-time role on the Toronto Maple Leafs for seven games earlier this season.
The role was on the fourth-line with the majority of it being at centre.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs having so many depth options for the fourth line, it may be a thrilling training camp to open next season.
You’d obviously have Brooks, plus a pretty big list of others from both the Leafs and Marlies.
There’s a lot of competition throughout the Toronto Maple Leafs, but with seven games of NHL experience, and good numbers, Brooks could make it as a regular.
Although his stint was rather short, his numbers were rather promising.
Playing an average of almost eight minutes a game, Brooks totaled an expected goals-for of 54%. A significantly higher total than Frederik Gauthier, Kyle Clifford and Denis Malgin.
The probability of Brooks making the Toronto Maple Leafs isn’t low, but nor is it high.
Kyle Dubas and the rest of Leafs management could go two directions with the team.
One, they go the size route and try and win with height and strength on the back-end. However, they may choose to bring skill into the picture, which is more of Dubas’ style.
The way to figure out which route the Toronto Maple Leafs will go down is whether or not they sign Clifford. If he’s signed, we could see them go tough on the back-end. If not, Brooks could see some ice-time in the NHL.
It’s also likely that the Toronto Maple Leafs re-sign Jason Spezza, and with that, a fourth-line spot’s gone, if he continues to contribute the way he did last season.
If you add Clifford into scenario too, there’s only one spot left. And that’s at centre.
Many players like Egor Korshkov, Kenny Agostino and Nick Robertson have a chance to crack the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup too. But since none of them play centre, it could just be Gautheir versus Brooks for the final roster spot.
There also could be some challenge by Pierre Engvall, who did play centre with the Marlies, if he was to be demoted because of another player.
It’ll be a tough task for Brooks to crack the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup, but it’s very possible. And with the way he played with the team last season, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep him in the NHL.