Leaf's Lineup for 2021

[hobie]

If there's a season TO's top 2 lines will probably look the same as last year with lots of changes in the bottom 2 lines and defense. TO was caving at the end of last year and the playoff qualifier series was bad, I think the lineup needs to be rethought, reconfigured and with the infusion of so many new players, it might happen.

 

Barabanov/Matthews/Marner- line needs a change, regular season dynamic, playoffs less so

Kerfoot/JT/Nylander- speed, talent should be an excellent line

Micheyev/Hyman/Anderson- jam, speed and some scoring potential, TO's defensive conscious

Simmonds/Thornton/Spezza- should be able to handle the opposition's 4th lines, 2nd PP unit

extra- Vesey

Robertson to juniors for now

 

Rielly/Bogosian- Rielly needs someone who will/can take care of business in TO's end like he had with Hainsey, maybe Bogo will free him up to do what he does best like Hainsey did

Muzzin/Brodie- will do the defensive heavy lifting and both have excellent defensive reputations

Lehtonen/Holl- could be very effective 

extra- Dermott

 

Sandin and Liljegen, their potential is just that, need more seasoning

 

 

 

[hobie]

Some surprises so far:

 

Bogo is TO's best 5th/6th d-man in a long time

Spezza is still a playa

Vesey isn't

 

But mostly that there's even a season, of sorts.

[WordsOfWisdom]

On 2/13/2021 at 6:31 PM, hobie said:

But mostly that there's even a season, of sorts.

 

I think an 8-team division would have made the schedule feel less repetitive.  It really highlights the weakness with this divisional format. 

 

Leafs appear to be the class of the North division. Facing someone other than Boston, Tampa, or Washington in the first round will work wonders for Toronto as well. We can actually have a real "first round" opponent instead of running into the future Stanley Cup champion in the first round all the time.