3 rookies who can make the Toronto Maple Leafs roster

No. 3: Fraser Minten

it's time for Minten to be an everyday NHLer and he should be the team's third or fourth-line centre, booting David Kampf for the curb. After a solid training camp last year, Minten was given a look at the NHL level but after four games with zero points, he was sent back to junior for the year.

He wasn't quite ready to be an everyday NHLer and another year dominating in junior was the right decision. However, this should be the year that he makes the roster, especially since the Leafs bottom-six is so poor.

When you look at Minten's game, although he had a strong offensive performance in junior, his best skillset is his defensive abilities. Realistically, his ceiling is most likely set out as a good third-line centre, who's very smart and won't make a lot of mistakes. He can play the penalty-kill and be a reliable player in the bottom-six, who can score between 15-20 goals per year.

If I'm making an NHL comparison, I'd look at someone like Jordan Staal as a good comparable, although we should be so lucky. Although Staal was a much higher draft-pick, he served as a great third-line centre behind Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin early in his career and was someone who was scary on the penalty-kill, as he could break the other way.

Staal wasn't too flashy, but he did everything you wanted and has played over 1,200 NHL games as a result. Who knows if Minten will reach that 1,000 NHL game mark in his career, but in a perfect world, that's the type of NHL career I could see and the Leafs could use a player like that, especially since they'll have a number-one centre in Auston Matthews on the roster, hopefully, for another decade.