Toronto Maple Leafs: What the Top 2 Lines Might Look Like

The Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of talented players up front.

Most of Toronto Maple Leafs top six is pretty much set, but there are some questions, such as: Who will be the team’s second left winger? What combination will the coach use? Is William Nylander going to play left wing?

Over the last two seasons, the Leafs top-six has been pretty steady, and I wouldn’t expect that to change too much this year, but the possible combinations are limitless, especially because we know that head coach Sheldon Keefe enjoys experimenting with his lines.

There are also some rookies, some veterans and even a couple former allstars competing to play with the Leafs best players, which should make training camp interesting.

The Guarantees and the Most Liklies

For the Toronto Maple Leafs top six there are four locks. .

1. Auston Matthews  – 23 years old – C
2. Mitch Marner – 23 years old – RW
3. John Tavares – 30 years old – C
4. William Nylander – 24 years old – RW/LW

These players are definitely not losing their jobs to anyone else on the roster.  After that, you can almost assume Zach Hyman will be there. Hyman is coming of a career best season and is beloved by his coach and fans.  Whether the coach decides to play him with Matthews or Tavares, Hyman is a near certainty for one of the top wing positions.

Rounding out the probable top-six is Ilya Mikheyev, but as he has only 39 career NHL games, I don’t think he can be said to be a lock.

Tthe Toronto Maple Leafs now more than ever have the depth they were kind of lacking in seasons past so really if Mikheyev doesn’t play up to his potential they can easily slide someone else into his spot and bump him down to the third line. (Stats from CapFriendly.com)

The Dark Horses

Like I said above the Toronto Maple Leafs have their top six pretty much set in stone, but they also have an extremely deep team, and there is going to be competition. Here are some potential dark horses to be slotted into the top six at sometime during the regular season.

1. Alex Kerfoot – 26 years old – C/LW
2. Wayne Simmonds – 32 years old – RW/LW
3. Nick Robertson – 19 years old – LW

In my opinion these are the only three players that come to my mind when I think of potential dark horses that could steal a top six spot during the season.

Alex Kerfoot who is more than likely going to slot into the third line centre spot next season is the most likely one out of these three players that could see himself get top six minutes if something changes. He can play the wing as well as centre and the only way I can see Kerfoot slotting in on the wing in the top six is if Joe Thornton or even Jason Spezza takes the third line centre job, which I doubt happens.

Wayne Simmonds is a less probable candidate compared to Kerfoot to slide into the first two lines, however the Toronto Maple Leafs have a wider variety of wingers compared to centres on the team so I wouldn’t count out Simmonds playing top six minutes out entirely, although I would bet my money he starts the season on the third line.

Lastly there’s the rookie Nick Robertson, he’s kind of an unknown right now for various reasons, the first reason being no one knows if he’ll start in the OHL or come right up to the NHL for next season.

Robertson is going to have to beat out several more established players for a job, and he can be sent to the OHL, so its unclear where he will play. That said, he’s got more talent and a higher ceiling than anyone except the Big Four, so he could be a threat to steal ice time from Mikheyev or even Hyman, though that seems unlikely at this point.

Possible Line Combinations

Combination one:

Hyman – Matthews – Nylander

Mikheyev – Tavares – Marner

The first combination I have listed is the one that I think is the most realistic one to take place for more than one reason. Hyman, Matthews, Nylander have been line mates at one point or another since their rookie season and they have always played well when together on a line so it wouldn’t be anything new to them at this point.

Mikheyev, Tavares, and Marner together is another line I think would work because they’ve also played together during the 2019-20 season and they all looked great together.

Marner and Tavares also played together during the 2018-19 season and we all know how well that worked out for them, both of them had career years to date so again like the first line it really wouldn’t be anything new at this point.

Combination two:

Hyman – Matthews – Marner

Mikheyev – Tavares – Nylander 

The second combination I have listed here is something I could see happen if Sheldon Keefe wants to go top heavy and have Marner play alongside Matthews again like we saw sometimes last season.

Mikheyev, Tavares, and Nylander could be interesting to watch to be honest because Tavares and Nylander did play alongside each other when Keefe went with Matthews and Marner and they didn’t look that bad either, and with throwing Mikheyev on that left wing it could boost that line even more.

Those are the two I sees as most likely, but if Nylander is on the left wing then everything changes. If Nick Robertson steals a job in camp, everything changes.  The main takeaway here is that the Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of options, and that can only help the team.