Why the Toronto Maple Leafs Can Afford to Keep Losing Players

The Toronto Maple Leafs have recently lost both Adam Brooks and Michael Amadio on waivers, and not too long ago they lost Jimmy Vesey and Travis Boyd as well.

The fact that other teams want their players is absolute proof that anyone complaining about the Toronto Maple Leafs depth is either just flat-out wrong, or tricked by the bad vibes and constant losing.

Either way, the Leafs are clearly one of the NHL’s deepest teams, which is ironic considering that almost all mainstream hockey analysis concludes that their salary cap management is terrible and they are a team run by idiots.

Of course, this obviously wrong assertion is not at all swayed by the fact that Kyle Dubas became a sort of avatar (unfairly) for the advanced stats movement in hockey, and has a portion of the extremely conservative (small “C”) hockey world is actively threatened by him and thus cheering for him (and the Leafs) to fail.

Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how did the guy who gave away Devon Toews get awarded the executive of the year trophy for taking his team to a 12th overall finish?

Anyways, the Leafs are a deep team, and the reason they are able to absorb the losses of Brooks and Amadio is because of three players on the Marlies.

Toronto Maple Leafs Depth Shines in AHL

Joey Anderson is an NHL player.  He would be a perfectly adequate fourth line player on a competing team, and he’s got more to give than just that.  He has three goals in six AHL games this year and made it really easy to waive Michael Amadio.

Kirill Semyonov is also an NHL player, and will almost certainly make his debut later this year.  He has five points in six AHL games so far, and along with Anderson is definitely going to have a solid NHL career.

Additionally, the Leafs can turn to Josh Ho-Sang who, though by no means a complete player, does have elite puck skills and can definitely contribute in the NHL at some point.

Nine weeks from now the Leafs have Nick Robertson as an option as well.

Finally, should the need for a Michael Amodio / Adam Brooks type arise and the Leafs for some reason end up hesitant to call on any of the four aforementioned players, there is Brett Seney, a 25 year old with 50 NHL games to his credit.  He has four goals so far this year in six games.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in good shape, depth wise, despite losing the players they have recently lost on waivers.   They can afford to make decisions that lead to losing depth players because they know that they are about seven NHL lines deep.

The cost of losing an Amadio is worth it if it allows the Leafs to have a better NHL roster, more flexibility and perhaps even accumulate cap space as the season goes on.  Whether or not people agree with the strategy is one thing, but Kyle Dubas and co. definitely have a strategy and to their mind, the risk is worth the reward.

I suppose time will tell who is right.  Although, the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs won a division title and almost won the President’s Trophy, despite the Pandemic causing the cap to stay flat should end the discussion.