Toronto Maple Leafs May Have Best Fourth Line in Hockey

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have the best fourth-line in hockey right now.

With opening night around the corner, the Toronto Maple Leafs line-up is set and their fourth-line could be one of the biggest surprises of the entire roster.

If John Tavares is ready to go, the line-up is scheduled to look something like this (via: Jonas Siegel, The Athletic):

• Michael Bunting/Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner
• William Nylander/John Tavares/Denis Malgin
• Pierre Engvall/Alex Kerfoot/Calle Jarnkrok
• Zach Aston-Reese/David Kampf/Nicolas Aube-Kubel

As it has been for the past few years, the forward group is pretty similar up-front. Lead by Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander, those four will the vocal-point of the offense. However, the newly formed third-line has a lot of potential for offense with the addition of Jarnkrok.

However, the biggest upgrade to this roster is the fourth-line.

Could the Toronto Maple Leafs Have Best 4th Line in NHL?

When the Leafs lost Game 7 against Tampa Bay last year (sorry for the reminder), thier fourth-line looked like this:

• Ondrej Kase/Colin Blackwell/Jason Spezza

That wasn’t a terrible fourth-line at all. Kase and Spezza could still provide some offense and were responsible NHLers, while Blackwell was an undersized centre with speed and solid defenisve abilities.

However, it didn’t provide that spark that a fourth-line usually should.

When I think of a perfect fourth-line, I think of a group of shutdown defenders, who hit and play with tremendous speed. You want all three (or at least the two wingers) to hit every single player they face, especially in the playoffs.

The fourth-line should tire out the opposition and they should all be responsible on the penalty-kill.

Toronto’s fourth-line currently has that and they have a little bit of skill.

With a 52.9 face-off percentage last year, David Kampf was one of the more reliable face-off players in the NHL last year. He was still third on the Leafs in that category, but it was only behind Matthews and Tavares, who are two of the best players in the league.

Not only was he was a fantastic face-off player, but he played the penalty kill and is one of the best defensive players in the entire NHL. He was the poor-man’s version of Patrice Bergeron from a defensive point-of-view and was incredibly reliable.

As for Aston-Reese and Aube-Kubel, both of these players are going to bring the energy that a fourth-line needs and I have a strong feeling that the fanbase is going to love them.

In 52 games with Pittsburgh last year before getting traded to Anaheim, Aston-Reese finished with 187 hits and lead the team. To put that in perspective, he still finished first on the team despite playing in 26 less games than Kris Letang, who was second on the team with 171 hits.

That’s actually nuts.

Last but not least on that fourth-line is Nicolas Aube-Kubel, who’s similar to Aston-Reese, but with a little more firepower.

Aube-Kubel showed some offensive upside last year, scoring 11 even-strength goals, but he also was a ball of energy, finishing second on the Colorado Avalanche in hits. He only averaged 9:49 TOI in Colorado, but that time he played was effective, as he played 14 playoff games with the team, on-route to winning a Stanley Cup.

You’re not going to see the fourth-line on the score-sheet every night, but if you watch every game, you’re going to notice this trio a bunch. Hopefully they can chip in, but if everything goes according to play, these three players will be a big difference next spring when the Toronto Maple Leafs get ready for their playoff-run.