Examining 4 Potential Toronto Maple Leafs Third-Line Combinations

The bottom-six of the Toronto Maple Leafs forward group has undergone a massive overhaul this offseason.

In 2019-20, whenever possible (though because of injuries it rarely was) the Toronto Maple Leafs third and fourth lines looked as follows:

Andreas Johnsson – Alex Kerfoot – Kasperi Kapanen

Kyle Clifford – Pierre Engvall – Jason Spezza

Gone from that group are Johnsson, Kapanen, and Clifford. That is three out of six no longer on this roster. Throw in Pierre Engvall who does not have a clear path towards playing time, and we are potentially talking about four new faces taking up two-thirds of the bottom-six slots.

While the fourth line, which will be centred by Jason Spezza in 2020-21, will only be looking for about seven minutes a night and therefore, will not be a significant contributor to this team’s success, the third line will be tasked with key shifts and forced to take on various roles.

Sometimes Sheldon Keefe may look to the third line for some aggressive play and could transform the line into a “checking line”. Other times he may want some offense and could look for that line to add an offensive punch in an otherwise sluggish affair. After all, the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning, proved just how essential a versatile third line could be to a team’s success.

Although Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, and Victor Hedman carried the team to their cup win, head coach Jon Cooper often looked to the trio of Barclay Goodrow, Yanni Gourde, and Blake Coleman to be a tone-setter most nights – something the Toronto Maple Leafs did not have the luxury of last season.

Coming into 2020-21, Keefe will have the same opportunity to create a similar line for himself and after a slew of offseason signings, he is not short on potential combinations.

Alex Kerfoot – Joe Thornton – Nick Robertson

If Nick Robertson does make the team, this is exactly where he will be slotted. However, there is a very important word in that sentence – “if.” As it stands right now, CapFriendly shows the Toronto Maple Leafs as just over the upper cap limit by $1.05 million with a 23-man roster. In order to become cap compliant by opening night, GM Kyle Dubas is going to be forced to send a forward down to the AHL.

The likely candidates are Jimmy Vesey, Travis Boyd, and Robertson, but of the three, only Robertson is waiver-exempt. The Leafs would risk losing either Vesey or Boyd to waivers should they go with one of those two players, making it more likely Kyle Dubas opts to send down Robertson.

I am also assuming there is no OHL season this year. Currently, the NHL and the CHL have a developmental agreement in place which states, “a signed player aged 18 or 19 who was claimed from a CHL club and is not retained by the NHL club, must be assigned to the CHL junior club whom he last played for or owes a contractual obligation.” (source; NHL.com).

This essentially means with Robertson being 19-years old, in a regular year, his only options would be the OHL or the NHL. In that case, Robertson has nothing left to prove in juniors, forcing the Leafs to keep him on their roster.

If there is no OHL, Robertson could be assigned to the Marlies, or possible go to Europe to play in game and return in 2021-22 ready to make a full-time push.

Alex Kerfoot – Joe Thornton – Jimmy Vesey

When the news broke of the Jimmy Vesey to Toronto signing, some people were perplexed by the move. For one, it is only a $900,000, one-year deal and with the deep pockets of MLSE, the Leafs have a ton of those deals to go around.

But secondly, and more importantly, Vesey is quite adept at doing the one thing that helps you win games: score goals. In his first three years with the Rangers, Vesey averaged just under 17 goals a season. If he is coming here to take the vacant 3RW position, Vesey will be looking to replace the offense lost with Kapanen traded. (stats; hockey-reference).

That task should not be too difficult as Kapanen only registered 13 goals last year. Vesey should easily be able to hit that marker and he will be doing so at $2.3 million less than Kapanen costs. At 6”3’, 200 lbs, Vesey will also be a physical presence out there for Toronto Maple Leafs, something Dubas looked to add this offseason.

The other thing that bodes well for him is from 2013-14 until the 2015-16 season, Vesey and Kerfoot were linemates playing together at Harvard University. In that time, Vesey totaled 126 points in 101 games  where the Boston native become one of the most highly touted college free agents.

Keefe may look to reunite the former teammates on a line together, this time with the Leafs, in the hope both can unlock each others’ A-class game.

Alex Kerfoot – Joe Thornton – Ilya Mikheyev

This trio of Kerfoot, Thornton, and Mikheyev, I believe, will give Keefe the best chance at creating the most versatile third line possible. The defensively sound Kerfoot in conjunction with the two-way skillset of Mikheyev will simultaneously allow this threesome to match up against the other team’s best line and also provide some offense while doing so.

At 41-years old, the best way to receive the full value Thornton can give you is to surround him with speedier wingers, which will allow the underrated skating abilities of both Kerfoot and Mikheyev to be on full display during the 2020-21 season.

Similarly, Kerfoot and Mikheyev are both quiet goal scorers. In his rookie season in 2017-18 with Avalanche, the B.C. native registered an extremely impressive 19 goals in 79 games, only playing 13:27 a night. (stats; hockey-reference), alongside Colin Wilson and J.T. Compher for most of the season. Pair him up with one of the best playmakers to ever play this game in ‘Jumbo’ Joe and the idea of Kerfoot potentially setting a new career-high across the board next year is certainly realistic.

Likewise, Mikheyev, at the time of his injury, was on pace for 17 goals, flanking the highly intelligent John Tavares. Thornton is built in a similar way to Tavares in that they do not rely on their speed to beat their opponents.

Instead, they are cerebral and use their smarts to outwit the opposition. It is very likely that should Mikheyev match up on one of the future hall-of-famer’s wings, he could shatter the goal pace he set out for himself in 2019-20.