Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Biggest Storylines Out of Training Camp
My Take
Obviously, the biggest storyline out of training camp is the transformation of the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line during the offseason.
While Barrie walked in free agency and Pietrangelo turned out to be unavailable for Toronto, Dubas did manage to resing Dermott and sign T.J. Brodie, Zach Bogosian and the coveted former KHL FA Mikko Lehtonen in free agency. Adding the much-needed depth in what has been Toronto’s Achilles heel for almost decades now, their blue-line.
While none of those names come close to the coveted right-handed shutdown defenseman, many Toronto Maple Leaf fans have been dreaming off, it does provide more depth and options.
So much even, the forever 7th defenseman and last years hero, Martin Marincin was placed on waivers earlier. Even with Marincin on waivers, the Toronto Maple Leafs could dress 7 defensemen and would still have to bench one potential starter.
With the pairings at yesterday’s practice, perhaps the most interesting storyline would be how long it will take before either Bogosian or Dermott will be swapped out in favour of Lehtonen.
However, I think the biggest storyline to develop will be that of the Rielly and Brody pairing. With Brodie being signed semi long-term and Rielly’s extension coming up, their chemistry and potential success as a pairing will play a major role in Rielly’s extension.
Michael Da Ponte
After a week of practices and scrimmages, there have been several interesting storylines coming out of training camp and into the regular season.
The one I am looking at most closely as training camp turns over to the regular season is the play of William Nylander.
Nylander took a huge step forward last year and outplayed his contract despite his harshest critics. He scored 31 goals while being shuffled around a bit up and down the line-up. This year he should be solidified on the second line with Tavares for most of the season and I am looking for him to take another giant leap this season into superstar status.
Throughout his career, Tavares has helped multiple players to have their own career-best seasons while playing on his wing. Despite the shortened 56 game season, I am expecting Nylander to equal or surpass his impressive season last year and catapult himself into the upper echelon of the league’s elite players.
Nylander and Tavares showed tremendous chemistry during the Blue v. White scrimmage Saturday night. If they can carry that chemistry throughout the season the Leafs will have two number-one lines that will cause havoc throughout the Canadian division.
There is no team in Canada that can match up with the two-headed monster that the Leafs will be rolling out this season. That is why I am watching Nylander’s rise carefully. It could be the difference between a Cup contender and a Cup favourite.
Shaun Filippelli
As much as I commend Kyle Dubas for not being scared off by age when addressing his team’s needs this offseason, I think that very storyline is one that demands our attention heading into the 2020-21 campaign.
He didn’t shy away from what could turn out to be impactful moves, while not letting a birth year stop him from doing so. And it’s about more than just Joe Thornton. Beyond 41-year-old Thornton, Toronto also added 32-year-old Wayne Simmonds, 31-year-old Aaron Dell, 30-year-old Zach Bogosian, 30-year-old T.J. Brodie, and 27-year-old Jimmy Vesey.
While these weren’t their only roster revisions, the commonality shared amongst those noted is that they are all above the Toronto Maple Leafs average age of 26.8 from last season. This was an important evolution in Dubas’ strategy, as it was once thought that he was overly fixated on youth.
While there are certainly ways to justify that approach, clearly even he realized that adding some strategically experienced years may in fact be a helpful move in the right direction for a team that obviously needs the push.
It would seem that these players have found a comfortable fit through their pre-season experience with the club, as there really is nothing to suggest otherwise. However, time will tell if this deviation from Dubas’ original plan does in fact work to the team’s advantage in the way he both hopes and needs it to.
Whether the experience these players bring turns out to compliment or complicate the current makeup of the team will be on full display sooner than later, which makes it a very interesting story to follow into the season.
Jordan Maresky
The biggest storyline to come out of the Toronto Maple Leafs training camp is the decision to balance both of the team’s powerplay units.
Opposed to what we’ve seen throughout the league, head coach Sheldon Keefe and assistant coach Manny Malhotra decided to balance them out, during Saturday’s Blue and White scrimmage, we got the first opportunity to see Keefe’s brand new powerplay set up with the two groups looking like this;
1st unit: Rielly – Matthews – Thornton – Marner – Simmonds
2nd unit: Lehtonen – Nylander – Tavares – Hyman – Robertson/Spezza
This is a slight deviation from some of the tendencies we saw during the early portions of Keefe’s tenure. Most notably, he was unafraid to ride his stars and promote their ice time to levels we had never seen before.
From his arrival until the end of the calendar year in 2019, each of Marner, Matthews, and Tavares saw significant increases in even-strength ice time. Among forwards, Marner jumped from 140th under Babcock to 3rd under Keefe. Matthews from 12th to 6th. Tavares from 33rd to 2nd (per Sportsnet).
If you have three superstar forwards, you should be playing them a lot and getting their most absolute value.
A balanced powerplay attack in the 20-21 season is the exact opposite of that. You want your best goal scorer on the ice for as long as possible. Matthews could be on the ice for 60 to 80 seconds of the possible 120, leaving potentially only 40 seconds for the Tavares-led unit to work with. This does not seem ideal for maximizing your captain’s value.
Will Cann
The performance of Frederik Andersen will be the biggest story coming out of training camp’s going into the season.
After his first sub-par season, can the great Dane re-focus and push past all the noise in training camp? Will Freddie Andersen be great again under the pressure of a new contract?
To spin an old Dubas quote; He can and he will. And let’s be honest, he needs to be if the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to win the North division.
In an article I wrote a week ago, I covered this in detail, making the case that Andersen is primed for a bounce-back season. In the article, I go in-depth on his career numbers, spoiler alert, they are good and have been remarkably consistent.
One bad year should not overshadow all the success he has had as a Leaf. For those of you who are worried about age? Wear and tear? He’s only 30, which is not even close to old for a goalie. Plus, he only has 5 seasons under his belt as an NHL starter, which is not enough mileage to be worrying about wear and tear.
He’s big, he’s durable, and he’s good. He’s probably going to be good again. It’s ok to give him a mulligan and believe in him again.
The pressure of a new contract? The pressure to succeed? This is Toronto. We eat pressure for breakfast here. Then we do 100 push-ups and wrestle a gigantic raccoon that was trying to eat our garbage.
Well, maybe not, but the pressure just comes with the territory here. Freddie has handled it before and he will handle it again. Frederik Andersen is the key to a division title. He’s probably also the key to a playoff victory. I, for one, am excited to see him rebound and be the goalie we all know he can be.
I think this team will win the division and be a force in the playoffs, and Freddie Andersen will the backbone of that success.
Bram Diamond
Personally, for me, the biggest storyline will be what Sheldon Keefe makes of his line-up coming out of training camp.
With the Leafs set to begin the season this Wednesday night against the Montreal Canadiens, there are still many questions that need to be answered. Most notably; who will make the team and what the line combinations will look like?
One player that many people, including myself, are very excited to watch is the rookie defenseman, Mikko Lehtonen. Lehtonen, 26, is considered to be a rookie by the NHL this season as he has spent the past 7 seasons in the KHL.
Before he was signed, Lehtonen was seen by many analysts and teams as the top European free agent of 2020 as he won the award of KHL defenseman of the year last season. His skill set works well with the team as he is a two way, puck-moving defenseman.
While he may start the season on the bottom pair, I believe that he will bump up to the top 4 in only a matter of weeks. This simply because he is a defenseman that can play in all situations. Being comfortable playing on the right side, a spot the Leafs aren’t particularly well occupied and he’ll likely quarterback the second powerplay unit.
Next. New Years Resolutions for the Leafs. dark
The Leafs are set to become one of the best teams in the NHL this season and if they are successful, Lehtonen’s play will most likely be one of the reasons for this, making him the biggest storyline to follow coming out of training camp.