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2021 Toronto Maple Leafs Regular Season Forward Grades

By James Tanner

TORONTO, ON - MARCH 29: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs gets set to jump onto the ice against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on March 29, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Oilers defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - MARCH 29: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs gets set to jump onto the ice against the Edmonton Oilers during an NHL game at Scotiabank Arena on March 29, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Oilers defeated the Maple Leafs 3-2 in overtime. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
TORONTO, ON – NOVEMBER 7: Ilya Mikheyev #65 of the Toronto Maple Leafs  (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

Ilya Mikheyev

The defense is great, and if he had any luck he’d be  a scoring machine.  Though this is probably confirmation bias on my part, I’ve never seen anyone get so many breakaways and do so little with them.

For the $1.5 they are paying him, I can live with his lack of offense since his defense is just shy of being elite.  If he was a bit luckier he’d probably be a really valuable player.

I loved him on a line with Engvall and Hyman, though it’s expensive and dumb to play Hyman so low in the lineup (unless all lines played evenly).

All things being equal, I’d bring him back for the last year of his contract, but if pennies really needed to be pinched I don’t think you lose much swapping him out with an ELC contract for half the price.

ILYA MIKHEYEV. C. . W.

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