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Toronto Maple Leafs: Projecting the 2020-2021 Forward Lines

By Rossy Pasternak

TORONTO, ONTARIO - AUGUST 07: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his third period goal at 16:54 with Morgan Rielly #44, William Nylander #88, Auston Matthews #34, Zach Hyman #11 amd Mitchell Marner #16 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Qualification Round prior to the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 07, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ONTARIO - AUGUST 07: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates his third period goal at 16:54 with Morgan Rielly #44, William Nylander #88, Auston Matthews #34, Zach Hyman #11 amd Mitchell Marner #16 against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Game Four of the Eastern Conference Qualification Round prior to the 2020 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena on August 07, 2020 in Toronto, Ontario. (Photo by Andre Ringuette/Freestyle Photo/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ON – FEBRUARY 7: Jason Spezza #19 of the Toronto Maple Leafs  . (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

The Fourth Line

Jason Spezza had just about as good of a season as anyone could have asked from him, recovering from being scratched by Mike Babcock for the home opener to play a pivotal role for the team.

The Leafs tripled down on the aging vets this year, signing Thornton and Simmonds to one-year deals not only to add scoring depth and size at the bottom of the lineup, but also to add leadership to the dressing room

Dubas and co. have to be hoping that adding two vocal, veteran leaders in Thornton and Simmonds to the group will help Keefe get through to his young players, and what better way to do so than putting them together and watch them work? Of course this leaves Pierre Engvall without a regular spot, and given his season last year, the Leafs will definitely want to work him into games.  That’s OK, however, as other than Kerfoot, none of the other players competing for ice time will likely play every game.

Simmonds-Thornton-Spezza is a nice combination though, and as long as their lack of speed doesn’t become too much of a problem, the trio of veterans would dominate matchups against other teams bottom lines, much like the Clifford-Spezza-Engvall line did last season.

On the Bubble

The Toronto Maple Leafs plan on manipulating the cap for maximum effect,  so they probably won’t ever carry the full 23 player roster (and 2 goalies) that NHL teams are allowed to carry. Because of this, having players on the fringe of the roster that can move freely between the AHL and NHL is paramount to this team.  With the AHL team being in Toronto, expect a lot of paper transactions, and players in the press box who aren’t officially on the team that night.

Along with Jimmy Vessey and Travis Boyd, expect Alexander Barabanov and Nic Petan to also factor into the Leafs lineup at some point as well.

Next. An Issue of Perception. dark

Regardless of what Dubas and the Leafs have to do to get under the salary cap, they have an abundance of options available to them at forward.

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