I have never liked Nylander as a centre. He is far less effective playing in the middle.

No thank you.

As a rival team fan the above lineup isn't as good as you think it is. As a Hockey fan and son of a Leafs fan I would rather see something like this

Hyman-Matthews-Marner
Robertson-Tavares-Nylander
Mikeyev-Thorton-Vessy
Kerfoot-Spezza-Simmonds

with either Korshkov or Barbanov surplanting Spezza if one of them impresses at camp

as far as the D goes I think you set that up pretty solidly

Dont disagree - Just feel if they do try him again its going to be early. Good Chance Robertson in this case would be changed for someone a bit more experienced.

I do feel long run the above is closer to what will settle in as the season moves along - however Kerfoot would never sit on the 4th line Thorton or Vessy are most likely. I do feel to start the season at least Vessy and Kerfoot will be together see if they still have chemistry from the harvard days.

They probably will, I just don't think that having Simmonds-Thorton-Spezza as a 4th line against a team like Montreal with their speed on the 4th line will turn out too good for Toronto. I am not about to say that those guys will be turned inside out cause they are all very good players but when they will be required to try to chase down a Byron-Evans-Armia type of line they will not be able to do that with any effectiveness. At least with Kerfoot on the left he can match the speed of 2 of those guys, Byron does not have much competition in the league in terms of speed but that is not a slight against the Leafs. Byron is just probably in the top 15 fastest players in the league right now. The Leafs have a lot of great talent and will be one of the top teams in their division which ever alignment that might be. I just don't see Robertson, Vessy or Mikeyev as a 4th line option. I suppose a line of Robertson-Kerfoot-Vessy with Mikeyev getting second line LW could work as well as long as Barbanov or Korshkov can make the jump and push Spezza to the press box. However having Nylander as a center has not worked so well in the past.