3 Surprising Players That Will Make the Toronto Maple Leafs

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On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs announced their first major round of cuts that involved 27 players, including one of their top prospects in Topi Niemela.

With just a little over a week away from the first puck drop of the 2023-24 NHL regular season, there are still some hopefuls remaining in camp that are eyeing a spot on the Toronto Maple Leafs final roster heading into Opening Night.

Among the hopefuls include a mixture of veteran players with prior NHL experience, along with some solid prospects within the Leafs organization.

They will have just the upcoming two games left in the preseason to do their best to convince Sheldon Keefe and the Leafs management to keep them with the big club.

Some of the candidates, such as Noah Gregor and Mikko Kokkonen, may have done enough already to guarantee themselves a spot on the roster with their strong play so far during the preseason.

However, with a few spots left to fill, who else will be up for the challenge and secure one of the remaining spots on the roster?

Here, we will take a look at three candidates that will surprise the competition by making the finalized team roster for Opening Night.

3 Surprising Players That Will Make the Toronto Maple Leafs

Pontus Holmberg

Last season, Pontus Holmberg gave the Toronto Maple Leafs a great impression during his abbreviated 37-game stint with the team.

With his smart hockey IQ and great positioning on the ice, he played effectively overall for the Leafs during the 2022-23 season.

More importantly, he was able to provide some offensive output from the bottom-six of the lineup that the Leafs often lacked last season with five goals and eight assists.

However, due to the numerous additions to the Leafs lineup as they geared up for the playoff run, Holmberg was eventually forced out of a regular spot and was sent down to the Toronto Marlies for the remaining of the season.

With the Marlies, Holmberg continued his strong play, putting up 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points in 38 games.

In doing so, he helped the Marlies reach the AHL playoffs, but only to bow out in the North Division finals to the Rochester Americans.

Nevertheless, he still gained valuable playoff experience, while producing at a solid rate of a point-a-game during the playoffs.

So far during the 2023 NHL preseason, he may not be putting up spectacular numbers or making highlight-reel plays, but Holmberg has continued his steady, solid play whenever he is on the ice.

With his added flexibility of being able to play both center and the wing, along with his prior NHL experience from last season, look for Holmberg to secretly steal a roster spot when next week comes around.

Simon Benoit

Simon Benoit was a free agent signing made by the Toronto Maple Leafs this past offseason to supposedly help provide depth to their defensive corps.

After all, they had a large exodus of defenseman, including Luke Schenn, Justin Holl, and Erik Gustafsson.

Benoit played for the Anaheim Ducks in the past three seasons, including becoming a full-time mainstay on their back end last season where he very well could have been the single worst player in the NHL.

In 78 games last year, Benoit recorded three goals and seven assists for 10 points.

But more importantly are his 60 PIM and 200+ hits that he registered over the course of the season. With the current Leafs defensive corps severely lacking some big-time toughness other than Jake McCabe, Benoit would provide that much-needed element of the game to help balance the Leafs puck-moving heavy lineup.

Although, if that element comes with the other team destroying the Leafs whenever he is on the ice, as will most likely be the case, it will not help much.

With current injuries to both John Klingberg and Conor Timmins, the opportunity has opened up for Benoit to grab a stranglehold of and run away with it.

Even though he began camp late due to a back injury, his prior NHL experience and potential intimidation factor gives him a leg up on most of his closest competition. As a result, look for Benoit securing a spot on the Leafs roster by this upcoming weekend.

Martin Jones

In the case for Martin Jones, he was signed initially by the Toronto Maple Leafs during the past offseason as goaltender insurance for both Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll, who are going to be the top two goaltenders for the team heading into the 2023-24 season.

Nevertheless, given Samsonov’s injury issues last season along with Woll’s inexperience so far in the NHL, Jones believed that there could still be an opportunity that can present itself down the road.

Jones has risen to the occasion with his stellar play so far during the preseason for the Leafs, as he has given up only four goals in three games with a strong .939 save percentage.

If he manages to keep up his impressive performance, the Leafs may have no choice but to roster three goalies to start the season.

That is because Samsonov, Woll, and Jones are all non-waiver exempt, so there would be no doubt that none of the three will be able to pass through waivers unclaimed.

Especially now that the Tampa Bay Lightning will be without their top goaltender in Andrei Vasilevskiy for a couple months to start the season, there is a high probability that they will be looking to the Leafs as a possible trade partner with their three quality goalies. (All stats from hockey-reference.com)

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But given that the next goalies in line in the organization are Dennis Hildeby and Kevin Petruzzelli, the Leafs will likely try their best to keep their three NHL-caliber goalies at their disposal by surprisingly including Jones on their Opening Night roster, even if it means carrying an unorthodox three goalies in their lineup.

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