Initial Creation Date: May 16, 2022

Published: May 16, 2022

Team: 2022-23 Toronto Maple Leafs

EXPLANATION

(trade explanations are attached to them)

Core 4 stays, they showed up.

RE-SIGNED:
Campbell: $4M x 3. Gets deserved pay day. May have priced himself out of town if he had a better 2nd half.
Engvall: Most improved player on the team IMO. Likely gets settled in arbitration.
Spezza: Great locker room guy who still put up a respectable 12 goals this year. Obviously he may retire which would leave that $750K to sign a FA 4th liner.
Liljegren: Great rookie season. 3-year bridge to keep the AAV low.
Sandin: Same as Liljegren except AAV is lower as he didn't play as much.
Giordano: SOUNDS like he'll take a very team-friendly deal.

ADDITIONS: Nichushkin brung in to provide a physical presence while providing good secondary offence. Anderson, Steeves, Robertson & Kallgren are all cost-effective young players who are ready to take the next step in depth roles.

SUBTRACTIONS: I would've loved to re-sign Mikheyev but he has priced himself of Toronto (maybe his UFA rights are dealt). Blackwell and Lyubushkin deserve better opportunities than what they would have here. Kerfoot dealt to create space for upgrade (Nichushkin) and improve draft capital. Holl moved becuase, similar to Boosh, he'll have a better opportunity elsewhere. Mrazek dumped for obvious reasons. Kase is a great player but is too injury-prone and likely too expensive for what his role would've been.

Line 1: Friedman wonders if JT would be better suited for the wing. I agree. His only weakness seems to be speed and as a center these days you kinda need speed to drive a line. His offence will likely improve with less defensive responsibilities. Can still be a faceoff guy. Tavares-Matthews-Nylander may be the NHL's best line.
Line 2: Marner moves down to 2C. He played C in junior so nothing is new here. He has the speed, defensive awareness and play-driving ability needed in a Top-6 C. Will have weaker matchups too. Bunting and Marner already have chemistry and Nichushkin would be a great complementary piece.
3rd Line: Shutdown line. All 3 of Robertson, Kampf and Engvall are good defensively but can also provide secondary scoring. All PKers.
4th Line: Spezza mentors 2 young guys who had terrific AHL seasons. Lots of potential here.
1st Pair: Rielly and Liljegren both have lots of mobility and offensive potential. Both of their defensive games also improved this season.
2nd pair: Muzzin & Brodie looked dynamite in the playoffs as the shutdown pair. Would mostly be relied on PKing and protecting a late lead.
3rd Pair: Sandin has a responsible partner in Giordano to mentor him and help him improve his defence. Giordano has played over 1,000 games so the right side shouldn't be a huge challenge.
Goalies: Soup proved that he can be a starter in this league. Kallgren played well in a small sample size - will battle with Woll for backup job I'm assuming.
Depth: Simmonds and Dahlstrom there for injuries. Will be sent down numerous times during the year to help accrue cap space for the deadline.

Special teams units are also listed below.

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