Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Player Most Likely to Surprise In the Playoffs

TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 11: Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs is swarmed by his teammates after scoring the game winning overtime goal against the Arizona Coyotes during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on February 11, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Coyotes 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - FEBRUARY 11: Kasperi Kapanen #24 of the Toronto Maple Leafs is swarmed by his teammates after scoring the game winning overtime goal against the Arizona Coyotes during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on February 11, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Coyotes 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
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Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ON – OCTOBER 5: Trevor Moore #42 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his goal against the Montreal Canadiens with teammate Alexander Kerfoot #15. (Photo by Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)

Dylan Murphy

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going all the way. The naysayers will throw out reason after reason why it won’t happen- the Defense isn’t good enough, or Freddy isn’t good enough, or “you spent all your cap room on 3 players”, or some nonsense about Nylander not being elite, but really think about it for a minute.

Look at how strange the world has gotten in such a short span of time, it’s playoff hockey in August. Hell has sufficiently frozen over. It’s a jump ball, the playing field has never been weirder or even as it is right now, so why not us?

The player I think will be the biggest surprise? Alex Kerfoot.

In the exhibition game, he played as he did when the season opened, which, for my money, he was the team’s MVP among players not named Auston Matthews through the first 4 or 5 games of the season.

He’s making smarter plays than he was in March, has seemingly developed chemistry with his linemates Kapanen and Robertson. As a unit, those 3 could be a formidable force. Toronto needs their depth to shine at least half as brightly as their big stars, so far I’d say we’re off to a decent start of that.