2023-24 Player Highlights
Auston Matthews rebounded from last season (when he scored ONLY 40 times) with a league-leading 57 goals.
Mitch Marner lead the Toronto Maple Leafs in points with an eye-popping 122, finishing second only to Connor McDavid in league scoring.
Newly acquired Tyler Bertuzzi made the most of his time on the top line and reached 70 points for the first time in his career.
William Nylander’s star continued to rise, as he scored over 40 goals again and fell just short of 100 points. Unfortunately, we started to see more decline from captain John Tavares, who struggled with injuries and barely hit the 60 point mark.
Matthew Knies continued to prove he’s the real deal, racking up 25 goals and 37 assists, and finishing second to Connor Bedard in the Calder Trophy race. He showed no ill effects from the concussion he sustained when mugged by Florida’s Sam Bennett in the 2023 playoffs.
Speaking of Sam Bennett…….newly acquired Toronto policeman Ryan Reaves avenged Knies’ injury and earned all $4.05M of his ludicrous 3 year contract (and 5 minutes in the penalty box) by enthusiastically pounding on Bennett’s noggin in the Leafs first road game of the year.
Max Domi antagonized his opponents as well as coach Sheldon Keefe, as he found the penalty box too often but rarely found the scoresheet. Ryan Reaves ran rampant on the ice (between organizing team leisure activities), engaging in no fewer than an even dozen fights on the season.
On the blueline, the Toronto Maple Leafs defined the word “average”, as Morgan Rielly and John Klingberg were good but not great. TJ Brodie and Mark Giordano saw less and less ice time as age took its toll, but Jake McCabe and Timothy Liljegren took up the slack.
In net, Ilya Samsonov began the year as the starter, but due to injuries soon lost top billing to Joseph Woll. Woll then went on a tear, playing almost 50 games, and finished second to Igor Shesterkin in Vezina voting.