Toronto Maple Leafs Potential Opening Night Roster
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a lot of depth moves this off-season, but other than the goaltending, the roster won’t look truly different this season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs spent the summer retooling the bottom six, third-pairing defense, and goaltending, while leaving their core in tact.
The Leafs may not have made any exciting move’s, but they still figure to be among the NHL’s best teams, and will continue to ice two of the best players in the game in Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
The defense is still mostly unchanged at this point, with only Ilya Lyubushkin moving on, and depth acquisitions Victor Mete and Jordie Benn joining the team. The defense remains unsettled, as the Leafs have nine NHL players once the Rasmus Sandin situation is resolved.
As mentioned, the goaltending is completely different with Jack Campbell out and Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov in.
Let’s take a look at the potential lineup the Maple Leafs will ice in the season, with the idea of icing the BEST lineup rather than specific matchups (see Colorado Avalanche and Kurtis MacDermid as a reference).
Forwards
The forward group really didn’t change too much, and although there are going to be about 12 players fighting for the last three spots + the 13the forward, this should be similar to what we see in October:
Mitch Marner – Auston Matthews – Michael Bunting
Alex Kerfoot – John Tavares – William Nylander
Pierre Engvall – David Kampf – Calle Jarnkrok
Nicolas Aube-Kubel – Adam Gaudette – Wayne Simmonds
The bottom of the lineup changes significantly with the losses of Ilya Mikheyev and Jason Spezza.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel is known for denting the Stanley Cup, but I wouldn’t mind if he did so this season. He provides speed and a nasty side to his game, getting to the dirty areas whenever he can. Adam Gaudette is still trying to find his place in the NHL, and he may likely find himself scratched, but I placed him on the fourth line to start the season on a try-out basis.
The addition of Calle Jarnkrok was a smart signing as he could provide depth scoring in the absence of Ilya Mikheyev. He also possesses the tools needed for the Maple Leafs to assemble a shutdown line of Jarnkrok, Kampf, and Engvall.
The top six remains unchanged. Though there is a chance that Kerfoot gets moved for contract reasons, he was the most used LW on the second line last season and will likely remain there going forward.
The duo will look to improve their production from last season while the first line of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and Michael Bunting will remain together to terrorize the league for one more season.
Toronto Maple Leafs Defense
Until Rasmus Sandin is signed, I would prefer that the blue-line looks like this:
Morgan Rielly – Timothy Liljegren
Jake Muzzin – TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano – Justin Holl
If all goes well, this is still an above average backend. However, the high-ceiling potential of Rasmus Sandin is obviously missed. Assuming the Leafs sign him and figure out a way to fit him into the lineup, this group will be even better.
Justin Holl – who offers good value as an effective right handed defenseman with size and skill – is the likely one to move, though there is still the issue of having too many left handers.
Timothy Liljegren was the Leafs most effective defenseman last season and even received some Calder Trophy votes. If he can continue to improve his defensive game, he may capable of playing on the top pair, which, isn’t technically a top pairing – last season they used Ilya Lyubushkin with Rielly, so it’s not exactly a stretch to put Liljegren there to balance out the lineup with Brodie on the second pairing.
These pairings can change and obviously will once Rasmus Sandin is signed. Jake Muzzin makes over five million per year, and is injury prone and in decline. The Leafs could solve their cap issues and their positional issues by moving him out, but they may not be inclined to do so.
At this point, there is no way to know what they are thinking, just that they clearly have to make some kind of move. Until they do, the above lineup is, in my opinion, the best they can do.
Goaltenders
Matt Murray
Ilya Samsonov
Erik Kallgren
Matt Murray has been known for his injury history, but it really isn’t anything to worry about. If he is healthy, he should be a decent enough goalie. If he is injured, he goes on the LTIR, his cap hit is covered, and the Leafs get a new goalie. depending on how well Samsonov does.
The signing of Ilya Samsonov should stabilize the goaltending if this happens giving the team another option in goal. Kallgren finds himself on the outside looking in but if one of the two goaltenders go down, but he did enough last year to earn a shot at being the third stringer.
The goaltending is the true variable for how the season will go. The forwards and defense have displayed that they can play against the best, the coaching staff can make adjustments and put their guys in a position to succeed.
The goaltending is the main risk, and this should be under close supervision as the Maple Leafs begin their quest for their first Stanley Cup since 1967.