The Toronto Maple Leafs 2021-22 season is far away but it’s never too early to start talking lineup projections.
The opening night lineup for the Toronto Maple Leafs changed significantly from it’s playoff lineup, which is what typically happens.
Whether it’s injuries, trades or promotions, there are always a few names that seem locked into a spot that are no longer there in crunch time.
As we look toward the 2021-22 season, the Leafs lineup is going to look somewhat familiar, but there could be a lot of change. Let’s look at where the holes are first and then fill them in with an ideal lineup afterwards.
2021-22 Toronto Maple Leafs Lineup
Forwards:
TBD-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
TBD-John Tavares-William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev-Pierre Engvall-Alex Kerfoot
TBD-TBD-TBD
Defense:
Morgan Rielly-T.J. Brodie
Jake Muzzin-Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin-TBD
Goaltending
Jack Campbell
TBD
Salary Cap available: $12.5M
As you can see, the Leafs need to fill five forwards, one defenseman and one back-up goaltender into the starting lineup. Obviously, they’ll add another two forwards, defenseman and goaltender for depth, but for the regular 20-man starting lineup, they only need to fill seven spots.
Zach Hyman is expected to return, with a pay increase, but the Leafs still may have some money to add another top-six forward or solid back-up goaltender.
The Boring 2021-22 Toronto Maple Leafs Lineup
Forwards:
Zach Hyman ($4M)-Auston Matthews-Mitch Marner
Nick Robertson ($821K)-John Tavares-William Nylander
Ilya Mikheyev-Pierre Engvall-Alex Kerfoot
Barclay Goodrow ($1.25M)-Adam Brooks ($725K)-Jason Spezza ($700K)
Defense:
Morgan Rielly-T.J. Brodie
Jake Muzzin-Justin Holl
Rasmus Sandin-Timothy Liljegren ($863K)
Goaltending
Jack Campbell
Linus Ullmark ($3M)
Projected Salary Cap available: $1.4M
The Toronto Maple Leafs have three players in-house on Entry Level Contracts that should be promoted to full-time roles. Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin and Nick Robertson should all be starters for the 2021-22 season, and if they’re not by now, they should look at trading them.
If you look at this Leafs lineup, you can be happy or sad, that it doesn’t change much. The third line of Mikheyev-Engvall-Kerfoot performed very well this year and they should be rewarded to return.
The same thing applies with Adam Brooks and Jason Spezza. At $700K and $750K respectively, the two of them showed that he can contribute, even in limited fourth-line minutes.
The biggest question-mark of the lineup next year is what Zach Hyman’s contract will look like. If he takes anything more than $4M AAV per season, then it will be tough to reconstruct this roster, without removing a contract, like Alex Kerfoot.
Throughout this roster, there are only two spots that really change that people aren’t familiar with. The fourth-line winger and back-up goalie.
Barclay Goodrow is a player that helped Tampa Bay win a Stanley Cup because of his grit and determination to win and that would be huge in Toronto’s lineup. Also, Linus Ullmark put up very good stats on a terrible Buffalo Sabres, and could really excel playing behind Toronto’s lineup.
Although it makes sense to tinker with this lineup, at this current moment, I can’t see them changing course. They need to tweak a few things but the lineup will be very similar by opening puck drop next year.
If I was the GM, I’d trade Marner and reconstruct this thing like a video game, but that’s why I’m writing this, instead of making the big decisions.