Toronto Maple Leafs: 5 Quick Summer Predictions

The Toronto Maple Leafs are about two weeks away from doing anything exciting.

Though technically you can trade with other eliminated teams and make roster transactions while the playoffs are still going on, I doubt the Toronto Maple Leafs will jump the gun and do anything significant before they finish.

But once the playoffs are done, the Leafs – as is tradition – have about a third of their roster to turnover, and a ton of moves to make.

So here are 5 quick predictions about what they’ll do this summer.   This follows my near-psychic prediction of the FINAL FOUR + the One Team Who Got Robbed.

Quick Predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs OffSeason

One

Everyone knows that Jake Muzzin isn’t coming back, so this doesn’t count as a prediction.  2 x Concussions + Age + Decline + the need to win now = Him waiving his NTC, retiring, or spending all season on the IR.  Either way he won’t be back.

The prediction is this: despite everyone telling me I am stupid for saying this, TJ Brodie will also waive his NTC and play elsewhere next season.

Two

The Toronto Maple Leafs will use the money left over from trading Muzzin and Brodie on a new goalie, and that new goalie’s name will be Jordan Binnington.

And relax, yeah he made some inappropriate tweets ten years ago when he was a kid, but I am sure the Leafs will vet him to make sure he’s cool before signing off on the best trade of the summer.

Three 

Clifford and Simmonds will be be gone.  Each has a year left on his deal, but these guys won’t play a single game for Toronto next year.

Four 

Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, and  Pierre Engvall will all play elsewhere next season as the Leafs look to clear cap space and utilize players making the league minimum.  This is why you’ll see Nick Robertson, Mikhail Abramov, Alex Steeves and Joey Anderson get a better shot at making the team next year. ,

Five 

The Leafs will sign Lyubushkin to a cheap deal, and he’ll pair with Gio next year.  Sandin and Liljegren will be the second pairing, and the prediction is that the Leafs will trade for an elite right-side defender to captain the blueline.

There you go, five predictions and a couple bonus ones.   The Playoff thing was a total fluke, don’t expect any of these to actually happen!!!

I mean, they might happen, but they are very specific guesses.  If I wanted to look smart, I could be very vague and obvious, and say things like “Kerfoot is getting traded, Lyubushkin signs, Kallgren is the backup, Mrazek gets traded, and Matthews wins the Hart” – see, that’s a guaranteed five for five.  You see how these things work!

Enjoy.