No. 3: Who Will Play Second-Line Left Wing?
A few days ago, I wrote about this topic and came up with four players who could fill the role.
The most logical player to play second-line left-wing is Alex Kerfoot, although many think he should get traded (we’ll get that to later).
With so many trade rumors surrounding him, Kerfoot is all of a sudden becoming one of the most underrated players on the roster. The way people talk about his contract makes it look like he makes $10M per year, when in fact, he only makes $3.5M AAV.
For a 50-point player who can play the penalty-kill and switch between centre/wing, I’d say that’s a fair value.
The arrival of Michael Bunting and his $950K AAV deal has made Kerfoot’s contract terrible, because everyone thinks the Leafs can find another player on that type of deal who can replicate Bunting’s success. That’s not as easy as it sounds, but it does fit the mold of one other player who could fill the 2LW position.
Although I do think Kerfoot is the player to fill the role, if everything works out to plan, Nick Robertson should be the team’s second-line left-winger this year. His offensive output and ability to score will make Toronto’s top two-line’s unstoppable and it’ll allow Kerfoot to slide naturally into a third-line position, which will balance out the roster even more.