Toronto Maple Leafs: Voit, Robertson and Knies Change Everything

The Toronto Maple Leafs have the core of their team in place, but “Core Four” no longer makes any sense.

The Toronto Maple Leafs core is made up of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly.  These four players are not going anywhere.

The Wild Card is William Nylander, who needs a new contract that will mostly play out in his thirties, is at the peak of his value, and plays a position (forward) that the Leafs are strong in.

Nylander is my favorite player, but the stars have aligned and moving him for a young defenseman that has #1 potential, such as Bowen Byram, would be the optimal move for this team.

The job of new GM Brad Treliving is to build a team around these five players (including Nylander or who you get for him) and there are multiple ways to go about this.

In my opinion, the best and easiest is to promote three (or more) high-ceiling forwards and use the savings to add one more star to the lineup.

The key to this strategy is Matthew Knies, Ty Voit and Nick Robertson.

Voit, Robertson and Knies Make the Toronto Maple Leafs a Totally Different Team

Ty Voit is a fifth round pick from 2021, but no one really played in 2020 and that draft featured even more guessing than normal.  Voit then went out and scored over 100 points in the OHL in his post draft year.

The most likely progression for the 20 year old is to play for the Marlies next year, but the Leafs would be wise to give a scoring forward, with a high-end ceiling and a league-minimum cap-hit every chance to make the NHL roster.

Matthew Knies is a good bet to start on Auston Matthews left wing next October, and Nick Robertson, if he can ever stay healthy, remains a high-ceiling potential star.

Over the last several seasons, the Leafs have failed miserably to develop any stars, or even just exciting and cheap forwards who can play at the league minimum.  It’s not Kyle Dubas fault, as his drafts are just coming to maturity.

It’s the GMs who proceeded Dubas who failed so miserably.  From the Rielly draft all the way through the Marner draft, the Leafs didn’t make very many good picks outside the first round.

Under Dubas, they drafted for skill and that should start paying off now.

Obviously I’m not suggesting gifting these three players a lineup spot, but if they can show they are ready, they should be given every opportunity to make the opening night roster.

With 3 x 20-30 (and even higher) goal players ready to supplement the Leafs offense, they will have a totally different team, and a much better one.

You cannot exaggerate how important ELC contributors are for a contending team.  That alone makes it worthwhile to try and get Voit, Knies and Robertson onto the team, but if one (or more) break out, then the Toronto Maple Leafs will go from contender to favorite.