The Toronto Maple Leafs roster is finally taking shape, although there is still a move to be made by Maple Leafs management in terms of acquiring a defensemen. Yes a defensemen! You didn’t think the Leafs were going to go all in on a signing like Patrick Marleau and not acquire a number 1 or 2 defenseman to play with Reilly did you? More on those rumours a little bit later, rumours post to come.
As the roster is currently constructed all slots seem to be locked up with no room for rookies or Marlies hopefuls to crack the Leafs lineup. Considering the seasons that Brown and Hyman had last year it would be near impossible to knock them out of the lineup. Also the Leafs 4th line really took off once Kasperi Kapanen was added just before the playoffs started.
With glue guys like Matt Martin and Komarov on the roster and waiver eligible players like Fehr and Leivo also on 50 man roster competition in terms of Marlies trying to make the Leafs on the front-end seems to be fait accompli.
One thing that is apparent with the addition of Patrick Marleau is that the Matthews line with William Nylander will be much better and will be more dangerous offensively with Zach Hyman no longer on that line. Another plus to the addition of Marleau is that now Hyman can help create another super line of defensively minded crash and bang scoring. Now that line can include Kadri, who scored 30 goals for the first time in his career thriving in a shutdown role, and two of Komarov, Brown, or Kapanen. Not only will the Leafs have two great top lines but now they have two elite bottom two lines as well.
With Zach Hyman signing a 4 year $9 million deal its only a matter time before the Leafs lock up Connor Brownas well. Connor is the only Restricted Free Agent left for the Leafs on the their to do list. Looking at Hyman’s 4 year $9 million deal and his $2.25 million annual average amount that will count against the cap its not hard to see Brown getting an annual average of $2.5 million on three to four years for a total of $7.5 to $10 million.
The Maple Leafs power play, which was 2nd in the NHL last year, will improve with the addition of Marleau to the second unit. The Leafs penalty killing, which was ranked 10th last year, also will get better. With good consistent goaltending the Leafs will easily rise in the Eastern Conference standings where a lot of teams did not get better.
Below you can find what I think will be the starting roster for the Toronto Maple Leafs opening night.
CapFriendly.com Armchair-GM User-Generated Roster
FORWARDS (14)
Right wing: W. Nylander ($894,167) – M. Marner ($894,167) – K. Kapanen ($863,333) – C. Brown ($2,500,000) – M. Martin ($2,500,000)
Centre: A. Matthews ($925,000) – T. Bozak ($4,200,000) – N. Kadri ($4,500,000) – D. Moore ($1,000,000)
Left wing: P. Marleau ($6,250,000) – J. Van Riemsdyk ($4,250,000) – L. Komarov ($2,950,000) – Z. Hyman ($2,250,000) – J. Leivo ($612,500)
DEFENSE (7)
Right: R. Hainsey ($3,000,000) – N. Zaitsev ($4,500,000) – C. Carrick ($750,000) – A. Marchenko ($1,450,000)
Left: M. Rielly ($5,000,000) – J. Gardiner ($4,050,000) – M. Marincin ($1,250,000)
GOALTENDER (2)
F. Andersen ($5,000,000) – C. McElhinney ($850,000)
AHL BURIED
E. Fehr ($975,000)
BUYOUTS
T. Gleason ($1,333,333) – J. Cowen ($750,000) – M. Grabovski ($0)
DETAILS
Roster Size: 23
NHL Salary Cap: $75,000,000
LTIR: $1,091,666
Bonus Overages: $5,370,000
Cap Hit: $71,159,166
Cap Space: $3,840,834