3 Toronto Maple Leafs Players Who Could Alter the Course of the Playoffs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are all too familiar with 1st round exits
It has been 129 days since the NHL went on pause, and as the Toronto Maple Leafs prepare for their play-in matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets, there are a lot of uncertainties that come with such an unprecedented length of time off.
As formal training camp opened on July 13th, we got the chance to see some of the line combinations that Sheldon Keefe and company have put together, giving fans an idea of which players have an opportunity to break out throughout the playoffs.
If you’ve consistently watched the Toronto Maple Leafs this season you’ll know that, despite the overwhelming amount of talent this group has, the biggest stars haven’t always been able to get the job done on a nightly basis.
Although they faced a number of significant injuries, there were still many inexcusable stretches throughout the season where the Leafs were unable to string wins together, having to fight for their postseason appearance on multiple occasions.
This means that the Maple Leafs may need to rely on some of their depth forwards to put up points, and they have a lot of talent that they can lean on if all goes as planned.
While there aren’t many drastic changes to their forward depth from their regular season roster heading into the 2020 NHL Playoffs, Leafs fans will be happy to hear that the first player on this list has made a much anticipated return from injury, and could potentially turn some heads throughout the postseason.
Ilya Mikheyev
Ilya Mikheyev had a solid start to the 2019-20 season in top six role alongside John Tavares and Mitch Marner, a line which is now expected to reunite in anticipation for the playoffs.
Mikheyev was sidelined with a wrist laceration in late December and the Leafs were forced to mix up the lines multiple times in order to find a good fit.
Although this would eventually cause some great moments for Mitch Marner alongside Auston Matthews, the sustainability of the forward depth was significantly hurt with ‘Souperman’ on the IR.
Through 39 regular season games, the 25-year-old rookie put up 8 goals and 15 assists for 23 points and was an early candidate for the Calder Trophy.
His size and deceptive speed proved to be quite the pleasant surprise for Toronto after signing him to a one-year deal out of the KHL last spring, and those skills could potentially be a huge turning point for the Leafs offense in the coming weeks.