Leafs 2021-22

I like it and agree with mostly everything, just wondering what you gain by trading engvall? Send him to Marlies for depth, only costs $125K against cap. Lots of options on wing, but I don’t think Kase will be on shutdown line, when healthy he’s an offensive threat - maybe switch out him & kerfoot?

Kings will likely have to waive several players not seeing a fit for Engvall here, I think he himself might end up on waivers.

1. Spezza >>> Kampf as far as offence, so it makes more sense to have Spezza in that 3C spot, if the plan is to get Ritchie and kase to provide some depth scoring. I think the 3rd/4th lines will be interchangeable this year as far as minutes played. Play the shutdown line more with a lead, play the scoring line more when behind.

2. It's fine to split the big 4 in to 2 PP units, but that top unit is going to run into same problem as last year. If Matthews is only shooting threat on that unit, good PK will shut them down. One of Nylander, Spezza or JT should be on that top unit (ideally Nylander). Kerfoot has never really shown he's a good PP option in the last 2 years, I'd rather Bunting or Kase get a shot.

3. I hope Matthews doesn't get used on the PK as you suggest may be an option. If anything him and Marner need to play less. They both looked burnt out by the end of round 1 last year.

I thought the same thing you do about Kase, but after doing a bit of research it turns out that he is actually pretty good defensively. I was contemplating switching Ritchie and Kerfoot because Ritchie is not the best defensively, but I want to see if he can do what he did in the playoffs. The other good thing about having Kase on the shutdown line is he makes it somewhat dangerous offensively, too.

Just cant see a successful season (compressed by olympics, lots of back to backs/3 games in 4 nights) with a 19 skater team...

With an overly top heavy team, Just 2 day to day injuries or a single injury and a player underperforming, will exhaust the team.