The Toronto Maple Leafs have been playing musical chairs on the left wing all season trying to find line combos that work.
Besides switching between Mitch Marner and William Nylander on the right wings of the top two lines, there has been virtually no movement in the Toronto Maple Leafs forward group besides the constant changes on the left wing.
Nick Ritchie, Michael Bunting, Alex Kefoot and Pierre Engvall have all been moving up and down the line up, but has the music finally stopped?
Based on the early success of their newest arrangements on left wing, maybe their will finally be some stability at the position.
Toronto Maple Leafs Finally Find Left Wing Combos
This season, Nick Ritchie has seen time on all four forward lines. Michael Bunting has been on the first, second and fourth lines, Alex Kerfoot has been on the second and third line and Pierre Engvall has been on the third and fourth line.
During Sunday’s 3-0 win over the New York Islanders, the Toronto Maple Leafs forward lines looked like this:
Bunting-Matthew-Marner
Kerfoot-Tavares-Nylander
Ritchie-Kampf-Kase
Engvall-Spezza-Simmonds
The Toronto Maple Leafs seemed to display more line chemistry in that game than they have all season with these new combinations resulting in Michael Bunting and Nick Ritchie assisting on both of Toronto’s even strength goals.
Michael Bunting
I’ve said from the start that Michael Bunting would be a great fit on the first line for the Toronto Maple Leafs. He’s great around the net.
Bunting can find space around the net to give Mitch Marner or Auston Matthews another passing option. He can also clean up rebounds if Matthews or Marner leave any behind. Michael Bunting has the talent of being able to play with talented players.
Michael Bunting is a pest that can drawn defenders to him to create space. He also leads the league in drawn penalties. He makes the opposition so frustrated that they often take it out on him illegally. You want to give a guy like that some ice time.
Alex Kerfoot
Alex Kerfoot had great chemistry with William Nylander during the playoffs last season which resulted in the pair finishing as the top two point scores for the Toronto Maple Leafs in their series.
With 11 points in 20 games so far this season, Alex Kerfoot is actually on pace for a career year. He leads the Leafs depth players in scoring.
Kerfoot spent time with David Kampf and Ondrej Kase this season, but he seems more suited to play with John Tavares and William Nylander in a role where he’s depended on to retrieve pucks, grind and be defensively responsible but also add to the score sheet.
Nick Ritchie
The Nick Ritchie experiment hasn’t gone well in Toronto, but perhaps he just didn’t fit into the role he was given as a top six forward. His weakness is his speed and it gets exposed playing at the pace of the Toronto Maple Leafs elite players.
His strength is his ability to hit and the Maple Leafs coaching staff wanted to use that ability to create open ice for the core four to work with, however, his checking strength may be better suited for a role on a slower paced two-way line that can score and defend. The opposition can’t score when they’re laid out in the neutral zone.
Kampf and Kase have been playing well and seem to be improving every game. They have great chemistry but haven’t seemed to get much help from their previous left wingers. It was good to see Ritchie get an assist and play an integral role in Ondrej Kase‘s goal against the Islanders.
Pierre Engvall
I’m not too sure about Pierre Engvall‘s current role with the Toronto Maple Leafs, but he’s at least a decent sub until Ilya Mikheyev returns from injury.
In my opinion, Jason Spezza needs someone more offensively minded to work with on the fourth line and Engvall isn’t that guy. Wayne Simmonds is alright but seems to miss the net more as he ages.
I liked Adam Brooks playing with Spezza last season, so maybe someone young and fresh that’s looking to make an impact would be a better fit. I’d like to see Alex Steeves get a call up from the Marlies at some point and see what he can do playing with Spezza or maybe Nick Robertson when he’s healthy.
It looks like the Toronto Maple Leafs have figured out their left wingers for the time being, but as I mentioned, the return of Ilya Mikheyev will add another dimension to the mix.