Ideas from the Athletic

Équipe: 2018-19 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 5 août 2018

Publié: 7 août 2018

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

Threw together this roster based off a few recent articles from the Athletic.

1. Apparently my eye test has been accurate. Turns out that based on advanced stats (albiet based on a small sample size) that Josh Leivo is pretty damn good. Good enough to be in the top 9, and given the chance he's a likely candidate for a breakout season.

2. They made a great case for the leafs going with 3 c and 7 d. It gives JT, Matthews and Kadri the ice time they need, keeps a top flight center on the ice at all times and creates interesting options to address the D in-house. It also allows for Nylander to take the odd shift at C and keeps Lindholm and Ennis as press box depth options.

3. It also turns out that the leafs might already have their 1RD. Reilly has experience there and based on a good sized sample, when he's paired with Gardiner on the left they've been a top 5 d pairing in the NHL. Also, based on his first half season, Dermot is good. Like, really good. And he proved that while spending most of his time playing with Polack. He might be just what Zaitsev needs in a partner in order to have a bounce back season. Finally, based on the advanced stats, Hainsey should really be used as a bottom pairing guy and pk specialist. That leaves one of Carrick, Holl or Oz in the press box with the other two getting limited minutes and pk time.

I think they're all interesting and well supported ideas that the Athletic puts forward. And it works well with the cap this year, allowing performance bonuses to be paid out and Horton to be on the opening night roster, which is important for next year's cap, as Palhal does well to remind us.

Will this happen? I doubt it. But I'd love to see them try it. What do you think?