Équipe: 2022-23 Maple Leafs de Toronto

Date de création initiale: 10 avr. 2023

Publié: 10 avr. 2023

Mode - plafond salarial: Basique

The overarching theme of this is 'options.' There are lots of ways to mix it up, but I think the most effective situation is to start Knies in the bottom six and see how it pans out perhaps with O'Reilly and Kerf. I'd definitely think about putting Knies on a line with Marner or Nylander at some point. He would definitely benefit from being on a line with them, regardless of who's centring it (Matthews or Tavares). Lafferty and Kerfoot, you can probably switch in and out of the lineup.

As for defence, I only scratched Timmins just to make the roster look evenly spread, but you have the main guys, and going back to the theme, you have options to play with, cycle in and out with Schenn, Gustafsson, and Timmins, especially if someone gets hurt.

Goaltending might be of concern to some people, but Sammy has shown that he's a usable goalie and will give the team a chance to win on what seems like just about every occasion he's been in the net. I'm not sure the same can be said about Murray given how he's been on the IR for significant chunks of the season, despite having a few good games in between. Hopefully, he recovers speedily from his most recent injury and his playoff expertise makes him usable again.

I have faith that this group can do it. In the end, if they do falter, I don't think Dubas should lose his job over it. He's given this team everything they need to overcome what looks like a pretty banged-up Lightning team. Doesn't matter what happened in previous years, it's time to finally change the narrative or flip the script, and show that this team is a force to be reckoned with.