No. 3: Pavel Gogolev
This would be a huge shock, as I bet there’s not a ton of Toronto Maple Leafs fans aware of this player, but there’s an outside chance that Gogolev plays his way onto the roster.
For those of you unfamiliar, Gogolev is the ultimate goal-scorer. Throughout his junior career and now early into his professional career, all this player does is score.
In junior, he had a 30-goal campaign and then followed it up with a 45-goal season. After junior, he then scored six goals in his first 13 AHL games and nine goals in his first 14 ECHL games last year.
More likely than not, Gogolev will play a full season with the Marlies this year and develop his overall game before taking a leap to the NHL, but he could surprise people in training camp.
At 6-foot-1, 180 pounds, Gogolev could bring size to the Leafs and potentially ride shotgun on the Leafs second-line with John Tavares and William Nylander. That would be a huge shock to put him ahead of Nick Robertson, but Robertson’s size is still an issue.
Since he’s waivers exempt, I’d love to see Gogolev start the season and play a few games with the big club before sending him down (if they want), but make sure you watch this player in camp because he could make some noise.