Ever since Zach Hyman left to sign a very reasonable contract with the Edmonton Oilers in 2021, the Toronto Maple Leafs have been on the lookout for his replacement. Trying to a find a winger that has some of the best detail work in the entire league while also being a netfront nuisance to pose as a scoring threat.
Well, they may have potentially found someone who could do something similar.
Auston Matthews is almost stapled to Matthew Knies as they formed a very strong duo for the 2024-25 season, with Mitch Marner on the other side. Of course, with Marner gone the natural inclination is to find another smaller playmaker to form that same sort of dynamic for the top Leafs line -- but what if they go all-in on some more physicality?
Sportsnet's Luke Fox also poses the question and even hypothesizes that head coach Craig Berube could want exactly that.
"Pass-first Max Domi has enjoyed stretches of success with Matthews. Newcomer Matias Maccelli, too, can thrive in the O-zone. Alternatively, Berube could want a peek at straight-line wingers Bobby McMann (who hit 20 goals) or Joshua (who once hit 18) up top to see if they can disrupt and create space for the stars," Fox wrote.
This new all-in formation for the top line could certainly work and while McMann and Joshua aren't perfect representations of what Hyman brings -- since we think that is what Berube is essentially looking for -- they do fill in the holes that need to be filled.
Matthew Knies does a lot of similar things that Hyman did, but not everything. That is where someone especially like Joshua can come in and take that role, bash some bodies, and score some goals.
Of course, Hyman's career year in the 2023-24 season where he scored 54 goals is not something that Dakota Joshua can re-create in Toronto, but during the current Oilers winger's time as a Leaf, those are some numbers that the newest member of this team could aim for.
Hyman's best season for the Leafs was all the way back in 2018-19 where he scored 21 goals and earned 41 total points in 71 games. And for his most productive, was the following season was when Hyman scored the same amount of goals and 37 points but in just 51 games with the season ending early due to COVID. Essentially, Hyman's best time in Toronto boiled down to being a netfront shooter, a strong penalty killer, and able to play with the most skilled players on the team.
Can Joshua do exactly that? Maybe not perfectly or as consistently, but he already did something similar with his 2023-24 season, scoring 18 goals and 32 points in 63 games for the Vancouver Canucks while playing higher in the lineup than normal. It isn't completely out of the question for Joshua to potentially find some success next to Matthews this season.
It all just depends how a trio of Knies, Matthews, and Joshua would work as a top line. It would certainly give some more soft skill for the rest of the Leafs' lineup, that's for sure.