According to Sportsnet's Elliote Freidman, the Toronto Maple Leafs are considering "left-wing options" right now.
It's no secret that the Toronto Maple Leafs current left-wing position is one of the team's weakest, however there is still potential in-house to improve. If Nick Robertson returns and Easton Cowan makes the roster, it's possible that the team's left-wing position could be much better than we think, but I wouldn't put much weight into that.
As much as I'd love to see Cowan make the NHL, I think the team will take a similar approach to what they did with Fraser Minten last season. Minten made the roster out of camp, but only played a few games before returning to the WHL. They didn't want to burn a year of his contract, which was smart, but he still got that valuable NHL experience before returning back to junior.
Cowan had an exceptional year last season and argubably can't do much better this year, so the NHL is the natural next step, but I don't know if he'd be able to beat out Bobby McMann, Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Connor Dewar or Calle Jarnkrok for a spot. It would be incredible if he did, because he's a cheaper option, but we'll have to see what happens.
Tyler Bertuzzi had a terrible first-half of the season last year, at least in terms of production (his advanced stats were great all year) but his game turned around in the second-half and he lived up to his contract as a top-six winger. However, now that he's gone, the team has a big gap to fill in that position and will have to look elsewhere. At this point, it's going to be tough to add a marquee name but they may get lucky with some older UFA's, who've yet to sign.
Here are three left-wing options the Toronto Maple Leafs should consider.