3 Predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs In the 2021 Season
It’s officially official, the 2020-21 NHL season is set to begin on January 13th and with that comes some predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After a long time not knowing when the 2021 season was going to begin for the Toronto Maple Leafs, it was recently announced that the NHL and NHLPA have agreed on a start date as well as other details for the new season.
It will be a 56 game season starting in mid January with four new divisions, including an all Canadian Division where the Maple Leafs will play six other Canadian teams all season long.
With a new season comes a new batch of predictions.
1. Nick Robertson Makes Lineup and is a Calder Finalist
2019-20 OHL stats – 46 GP – 55 G – 31 A – 86 PTS
Career OHL stats – 162 GP – 97 G – 77 A – 174 PTS
Nick Robertson debuted in the NHL in the summer time when the Toronto Maple Leafs played the Columbus Blue Jackets in their play in series for the 2020 NHL playoffs and performed well.
Robertson scored a goal and is now looking to train and improve his game to try and make the Toronto Maple Leafs permanently.
Robertson is a 19 year old just one year removed from being the youngest player in his draft class. He is a bit of a longshot to earn regular ice time, but the Leafs will need players on their team who don’t have to clear waivers to go to the taxi squad, in order to manipulate the salary cap so that they can make use of their incredible depth.
This and the fact that the only other place Robertson can play is a league in which he’s clearly too good for, suggest that it is probable he makes the team. Though he isn’t a Calder favorite, the Leafs high powered offense should allow the coaching staff to weaponize his elite shot to full effect, resulting in being a finalist for the NHL’s rookie of the year award. (All Stats from HockeyDB.com)
2. Auston Matthews Scores 40 Plus Goals
2019-20 stats – 70 GP – 47 G – 33 A – 80 PTS – CF% 53.9%
Career stats – 282 GP – 158 G – 127 A – 285 PTS – CF% 52.6%
Now some of you may be thinking to yourself right now, 40 plus goals in 56 games for Auston Matthews? I know right it seems like a lot, but at the same time it really doesn’t because this is Auston Matthews we’re talking about, someone who just scored 47 goals in 70 games last year, which was a 55 goal pace in an 82 game season.
In order to pull this off, Matthews would only have to slightly improve his scoring from last year. Based on last year’s pace, he would scored 38 goals in 56 games, so a prediction of 40 really isn’t too crazy, especially considering that Matthews definitely has the potential to score 60+ over a full season.
Matthews has been the NHL’s best 5v5 goal scorer since his first NHL game, and he still hasn’t peaked. Scoring 40 goals this season should be something he does fairly easily, especially considering how many games the Leafs will play against weak teams.
With players around him like Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander it’s never out of the window that a guy like him could do something like this but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see if it actually happens.
3. Maple Leafs Win 40 Plus Games
2019-20 season record – 36-25-9 – 81 points – 3rd in Atlantic Division
Most people are probably going to consider the Toronto Maple Leafs the favorites to win the Canadian Division, but I am going to predict that they are completely dominant.
Next season I have the Toronto Maple Leafs winning 40 plus games. Now, I will say this is kind of on the bolder side of things but with a Leafs team this stacked; with improved defense, a bottom six that will have tons of players fighting for spots, and a full season under Sheldon Keefe, it may not be that bold.
The fact is that under Keefe, this Leafs team was 8th overall, then they added T.J Brodie, and then they got moved to a much weaker division.
Next. Leafs Top Ten Prospects. dark
Obviously, a team winning 40 games out of 56 is hard would be incredible, and in fact this would put the Leafs just behind the pace of some of the NHL’s best ever teams. That said, things seem to be aligning for them to do so. I predict we are in for a very fun season indeed.