5 Tasty Predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2023-24 Season
5 Tasty Predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2023-24 Season
1. Auston Matthews Scores 50 Goals,100 Points
After winning the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player back in 2021-22 with his 60-goal season, Auston Matthews had, by his incredible standards, an off year in 2022-23.
It wasn’t like he was all that terrible, as he still ended up with 40 goals and 45 assists for 85 points on the season, along with incredible advanced stats, even if they were slightly lower than in his MVP season.
An undisclosed lingering injury persisted for Matthews throughout last season limiting his offense and his overall effectiveness. When Matthews is on, he may be the best 5v5 player in the NHL and even though he may not have been as consistent last year as he was the year before, he was still among the NHL’s best overall players, especially 5v5.
As one would recall, he did sit out a few games at certain times of the year in 2022-23 to nurse an ongoing ailment.
Nevertheless, he should be back to 100% full health now and is raring to go once again to help the Leafs avenge their second round playoff loss to the Florida Panthers.
In doing so, look for Matthews leading the charge once again in 2023-24 with a 50-goal, 100-point season, helping the team secure a top playoff spot heading into the postseason.
2. Joseph Woll Will Steal the Net
When the Toronto Maple Leafs ran into some injury issues last year with their main goaltending tandem, rookie Joseph Woll stepped in marvelously like a seasoned veteran, going 6-1 and helping the Leafs capture key victories during his short stints.
Not only that, he was even called upon during the playoffs when Ilya Samsonov went down to injury and quickly adapted right into the stressful playoff environment as if he had been there before.
The calmness and demeanor that he showed was unlike any previous homegrown rookie goalies that the Leafs have had in recent times and appeared to be ready for prime time.
On top of that, the Leafs also appeared structurally better defensively last year whenever playing in front of Woll for whatever reason.
Perhaps he gave the team the confidence and assurance that they needed, so in return the team as a whole became a tight knit defensive group.
As a result, going into the 2023-24 season, Woll will most likely be Samsonov’s backup to start the season, but he has a chance to steal the net eventually.
However, seeing the fact that Samsonov himself also ran into some injury troubles last season, along with some inconsistent play at times despite a solid season overall, look for rapidly improving Woll to eventually overtake Samsonov during the season and become the team’s number one goalie going forward.
3. The Leafs Penalty Kill Will Struggle
In the past couple of seasons, the penalty kill had been one of Toronto Maple Leafs main strengths. After ranking as low as 24th back in 2020-21, the Leafs drastically improved in the area, ranking near the top 10 in each of the past two seasons.
Primarily, their success were fueled by the play of forwards Alexander Kerfoot, Pierre Engvall, Ilya Mikheyev, Mitch Marner, and David Kampf, along with the rock solid defending by Jake Muzzin, T.J. Brodie, and Mark Giordano.
In addition, as much as people despise of Justin Holl’s play during his tenure with the Leafs, he was still a key player on their successful penalty kill for the past two seasons.
Overall, no matter which group of players were on the ice to handle the duties, they were so dominant with their speed and defensive abilities that their penalty kill sometimes turned into a “power kill”, where they seemingly would have even more chances at scoring than defending while a man short.
Now that almost all of them are gone other than Marner, Kampf, and Brodie, it will definitely be a hard task to replace the departed electric group of players with the recently added pieces.
Sam Lafferty is decent at the job, but probably not on the same level of any of the aforementioned players above. Jake McCabe can be solid, but he certainly is no Muzzin or Luke Schenn in clearing out bodies aggressively from the front of the net. And don’t even count on Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, Ryan Reaves and John Klingberg in being effective in a penalty kill role either.
As a result, look for the Leafs to have a hard time keeping the puck out of the net this year while they are a man short, unless both goalies end up playing out of their minds and manages to keep as many pucks out as possible.
4. The Toronto maple Leafs Power Play Will Be the Best in the NHL
It is hard to believe that the Toronto Maple Leafs power play could get any better than they were last year. After all, they were ranked second overall in the entire league with a 26% success rate just behind the Edmonton Oilers, who ran away from the league with a whopping 32.4% success rate.
But believe it or not, the Leafs may be even more lethal this season. Gone from last season are the likes of Kerfoot, Engvall, Michael Bunting, and Rasmus Sandin that managed to find time on the Leafs power play unit last season.
Essentially, they have now been replaced with the incoming Domi, Bertuzzi and Klingberg to enhance the group even more. Not only that, but with the potential of big shot prospects such as Matthew Knies and Nick Robertson making the team.
Along with the main core of Matthews, Marner, John Tavares, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, the Leafs now have plenty of potent options to equip two dangerous power play lines. They could be even scarier than the Oilers, who despite having the league’s best power play last season, they tend to just overload their first power play unit for their main success.
Because of the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs will be able to roll out two lethal power play units unlike most other teams in the league, look for them to surpass the Oilers this year and become the league’s top-ranked power play.
5. Timothy Liljegren Will Be on the Top Pairing
In one of our earlier coverage, we had mentioned Timothy Liljegren as one of the potential players on the Leafs that could have a breakout season this year.
After all, he is a former first round draft pick back in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, and was even predicted to go in the top three if it wasn’t for a bout against mononucleosis prior to the draft that caused him to miss significant playing time.
Nevertheless, the Toronto Maple Leafs ended up getting him as a tremendous value pick at 17th overall.
Early on in his professional career with the Leafs, he appeared to have needed more seasoning along with an adjustment period coming overseas as he spend multiple seasons in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies before finally getting a permanent spot on the Leafs roster beginning in 2021-22.
With the help and guidance of veteran defenceman and defensive partner Mark Giordano on the team, Liljegren has drastically improved in both his offensive and defensive aspects of the game, and has essentially become an important staple to the Leafsroster going forward.
The Leafs have longed for a stable and reliable top-pairing defenceman for Rielly all these years. They have tried Ron Hainsey, Ilya Lyubushkin, T.J. Brodie, and even Luke Schenn in recent times over the years. But it may finally be the time Liljegren rises to his first round pick status and becomes the ideal defensive partner for Rielly.
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Nevertheless, Liljegren may begin the season perhaps on the third pairing with Mark Giordano. But as he gains more and more confidence and playing time as the year wears on with his abilities on full display, look for him to be moved up to the top pair to help complement Rielly on a lethal top scoring line for the Leafs in the not-so-distant future.