The Toronto Maple Leafs have diversified.
Even though Zach Hyman was the first player Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas ever traded for, he’s always had this undeserved reputation as someone who eschews the physical part of the game.
Like almost all popular narratives, anyone with five minutes and a desire to do so could prove how wrong it is, but just for fun, let’s go with it.
What if the Toronto Maple Leafs ran out a skill-only lineup? What would it look like?
Toronto Maple Leafs Most Skilled Lineup
Wayne Simmonds is a popular player, and Michael Bunting is probably going to be pretty popular. Nick Ritchie is due to become a fan favorite, and there is a very high probability that the Leafs will dress a varied, gritty lineup to augment their skilled players.
But let’s just imagine what it would look like if they dressed a lineup that featured only their most skilled and offensively imaginative players.
Line One: Nikita Gusev – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner
This would likely be the NHL’s most purely talented line. People want a grinder on every line, but Marner is an elite defensive player, and he and Matthews always have the puck anyways. Gusev would likely rack up 75 assists as Marner and Matthews combined for 90 + goals.
Line Two: Nick Robertson – John Tavares – William Nylander
Sheldon Keefe would have to pick his spots with this line, but when you’ve got a first line as good as the Leafs do, that’s an easy thing to accomplish. Freed from ever facing top defensive lines, these guys would dominate. With apologies to Ritchie and Bunting, these should be the Leafs top two lines in real life.
Line Three: Josh Ho Sang -Alex Kerfoot – Ondrej Kase
Kerfoot actually scores at a decent second line rate and is pretty underrated. The other two might have some problems, but offensive talent isn’t one of them. This line would be fun to watch, and Kerfoot is good enough defensively that it would probably be an above average NHL third line.
Line Four: Michael Bunting – Jason Spezza – Alex Galchenyuk (resigned for this experiment)
Defense sucks. Scoring is all that matters. The Leafs will win every game 9 to 8.
The Blue Line:
Rielly/Brodie doesn’t change. Muzzin pairs with Sandin. Jospeh Duzak – who started his AHL career with 18 points in 23 games – would pair with Liljegren on the third pairing.
Ultimately, this would be a really fun team to watch. While I don’t argue the importance of icing a lineup that can give teams multiple looks, or employing players with varied skillsets, you can’t argue about the fun level here.
Defense is for nerds! I say try to score in double digits every game. I really do with the Leafs had success earlier in their Matthews/Marner window, because that would have given Dubas and Keefe the latitude to experiment with some of the more interesting concepts in hockey strategy: namely that you probably could do very well in the NHL if you built a one-dimensional offense-only team. I’d pay to watch it anyways.