Joey Anderson’s performances with the Toronto Marlies, coupled with his waiver status seems like it may guarantee him a Toronto Maple Leafs roster spot.
Is this really the case though or is he going to have to work a little harder than all that to assure himself a place on the Toronto Maple Leafs roster come opening night?
Given the 24 year-old arrived in the trade that saw Andreas Johnsson depart the team a few seasons back, you’d have to say it’s about time he gets a real shot at the NHL.
He has performed consistently in his past two seasons with the Toronto Marlies and will no doubt arrive at training camp with a real spring in his step, especially with talk of a revamped fourth line.
Joey Anderson Ticks The Boxes For The Toronto Maple Leafs
First and foremost, Joey Anderson is both young and motivated; spending time in the AHL hasn’t seemed to affect his motivation, at least gauging by his 42-point (26 goals and 16 assists) haul last season.
Secondly, with the retirement of Jason Spezza this summer and doubts that Wayne Simmonds has a role in the line-up every game this year, there’s definitely bottom-six spots open for him to claim.
Perhaps even more importantly with the departures of Colin Blackwell and Ilya Mikheyev, both players utilized on the Toronto Maple Leafs penalty-kill, there’s spots open to players that can play shorthanded minutes.
Joey Anderson meets that need, especially based on his 5 shorthanded goals with the Toronto Marlies last term. This could very well be his pathway into the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up.
Here is a guy that perfectly fits the remit for a very much revamped fourth line. If the Leafs indeed opt for a high-energy, high-pressure, forechecking group as their fourth line, Joey Anderson surely is the guy for the right-wing.
Anderson has stated that he is striving to follow in the footsteps of Zach Hyman in terms of his role with the team and surely that can only mean good things, especially if he can finally crack the line-up.
Indeed, there’s plenty of potential here for him to elevate himself into a third line spot if he performs anywhere near Hyman’s level when he was a Leaf. The likes of Mitch Marner and William Nylander are going to stop him getting to the right-wing of the top-six, but that’s okay.
Provided he brings it at training camp, there is absolutely every reason to expect Joey Anderson to make the Toronto Maple Leafs this season.