Top 3 Toronto Maple Leafs Roster Concerns for 2021-2022

Toronto Maple Leafs Area of Concern: Top-Six Left Wing

Zach Hyman left Toronto to ply his trade with a similarly underperforming franchise, the Edmonton Oilers.

Signed for 7 years at $5.5 million per, Toronto couldn’t (and shouldn’t have, even if they could) match the offer for the 29 year-old winger and ultimately weren’t able to find a suitable replacement.  Instead they opted to ink a couple of younger wingers with a bit of potential in Michael Bunting and Nick Ritchie.  This might sound like a terrible move on the surface, but in reality , with four superstars in their top six, the Leafs should be able to manufacture two solid, complimentary wingers out of whatever they can find.

Bunting, a Coyotes 2014 fourth-round pick, is a fine signing. 950K per year over 2 years offers good value for a 25 year-old (26 in September) who managed 10 goals in 21 games for Arizona last year (all stats from hockey-reference.com).

He put up strong numbers for the Greyhounds in the OHL as an 18 and 19-year old and has consistently produced in the AHL. That being said, Bunting benefited from an extremely high shooting percentage last year (26.3%) and is quite raw and unproven. He is a perfect bottom-six candidate who should have to compete for a regular spot in the lineup; not a bona fide top-six forward at this stage in his career.

Drafted 10th overall (and just two spots after William Nylander), Ritchie is a big; bruising left-winger with 350 NHL games under his belt and a decent, if not spectacular, track record. He has scored in the double-digits three times in his career and his strength and tenacity could be a good complimentary piece to the skill and finesse that already exists on the first-two lines. With an average career ice-time of 13:48; however, Ritchie has never seen top-six minutes and his average top-speed might be limiting. He’s a top-six candidate but not an ideal one and still a notable drop from Hyman.

The other left wingers in the line-up are Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev. Along with Engvall, Bunting, Kase, Simmonds, Robertson, Anderson and Brooks all vying for up-for-grabs spots in the bottom part of the lineup, may have to compete simply for a spot on the 4th-line. Kerfoot is the most likely candidate to line up on the left side of the Matthews or the Tavares line; a role that seems too demanding for a finesse player that hasn’t hit the ten-goal or 30-point mark in either of his two seasons with the Leafs.

A dynamic camp from one of Rodion Amirov or Nicholas Robertson would provide an interesting left wing option for the top-six but Amirov is probably too young to make the leap to the NHL and Robertson still doesn’t turn 20 until September and only played in 27 total games in 2020-2021.

There is some nice depth on the wing here but most of it appears to be of the 3rd and 4th line variety. The Leafs are going to need some breakout years from Bunting and/or Ritchie.