CarterHud

For the past decade, The Capitals and Penguins were both dominant forces. Now, they are both in the same position, trying to stay away from a collapse. The Capitals are the ones with the upper hand on the rivalry as of now. Alex Ovechkin is now under contract for a lot longer. They have a successor to Braden Holtby. The team has great depth on the wings. But can Father Time stay away from this team for long enough?

Offseason additions: D Matt Irwin.

Offseason subtractions: D Brenden Dillon, D Zdeno Chara, F Michael Raffl, G Craig Anderson, F Dan Carr.

Forwards

While winning another Stanley Cup would be nice, all that Alex Ovechkin needs to do is break Wayne Gretzky’s goal scoring record. Already the greatest sniper of our generation, if not all-time, Ovechkin scored 24 times with 42 points in 45 games. He was not close to winning the Rocket Richard, breaking his streak of three in a row for that award. It’s not like he needs it, as “Ovi” has led the league in goals nine times. The Capitals will miss Nicklas Backstrom to start the season, as the star center is still laboring from an injury sustained last season. Backstrom’s 53 points led the team last year. He scored 15 goals in 55 games, for a pace of 22 over 82 games, which would have tied for the third-highest total of his career. Washington reportedly tried to shop Evgeny Kuznetsov this offseason, but to no avail. He was very disappointing in 2020-21, scoring just nine times with 20 assists in 41 games. If he does not have a redemption season, then Kuznetsov will be letting down two teams; his IIHF suspension will prevent him from playing for Team Russia in the Olympics. Tom Wilson was successfully able to own an entire franchise, as the entire Rangers’ offseason seemed to revolve around an incident involving Wilson at the end of the regular season. Wilson’s 96 penalty minutes led the league last year, and he added 13 goals with 20 assists to the mix. The Capitals dealt a haul at the deadline for Anthony Mantha, who scored four goals with four assists in 16 games after the trade. He was not great in the playoffs, with just two assists in five games. Mantha has been a very good scorer for Detroit, but he suffered a career-low 10.9 percent shooting rate last season. Washington gave TJ Oshie a trial at center last season, although he should play wing again, even with Backstrom out. He continued to score in his sixth season with the team, with 22 goals and 21 assists. Oshie’s physical side is underrated; he has averaged over a hit-per-game in all 13 of his NHL seasons. Lars Eller could move up to second line momentarily. The ideal third line center, Eller does not score enough to be a consistent top-six threat. He played in 44 games last season, with eight goals and 23 points. Rookie Connor McMichael is an option as well. The 2019 first-rounder played in one AHL game last year, after scoring 14 goals with 27 points in 33 AHL games. This came after he dominated the OHL with the London Knights. Daniel Sprong has always been known for his shot, and he showed it off in 42 games last year, scoring 13 goals on 74 shots. He played all over the Washington lineup, although Sprong never had a ton of ice time. Former rival Conor Sheary was a solid bottom-six piece, as the five-foot-nine wing scored 14 times. The Capitals extended him for two more years, with an AAV of $1.5 million. Garnet Hathaway had 179 hits, missing his 2019-20 mark by ten, in ten less games. The checking winger added six goals and 12 assists while being one of four Caps to play in all 56 regular season games. The three forwards of that group are all on the bottom line. Speedy Carl Hagelin has definitely exited his prime, but he is still a very solid penalty killer. Hagelin had 16 points last season. Center Nic Dowd scored a career-high 11 times last season, as he was helped out by a 16.2 percent shooting rate. The Alabama native had 109 hits with 40 blocks while averaging well over 14 minutes a game. The team’s depth is pretty rough. Michael Sgarbossa had two assists in five games, an opportunity earned by leading the AHL Bears for multiple seasons. Sgarbossa had ten points in 14 games for Hershey last season. 2020 first rounder Hendrix Lapierre could win that middle-six center job over McMichael, or at least get the nine-game trial to start the season. Lapierre had 31 points in 21 QMJHL games last season.

Defensemen

John Carlson’s defensive struggles easily cost him the 2019-20 Norris, and hurt him from finishing top-five last season. Carlson scored ten times with 34 assists, finishing 12th for the best defender award. He has consistently been one of the league’s top offensive defensemen while playing heavy minutes. Dmitry Orlov is the backbone of the top pairing, although he averaged under 20 minutes a game for the first time since 2016-17 last year. Orlov had 22 points with 50 blocks and 87 hits. Orlov is the only left-handed defender on the team who does not carry a major question mark. Nick Jensen has been a solid shot-blocking defender since coming over from Detroit in 2018-19. He played in 53 games last year, with 14 points. Jensen also blocked 65 shots with 56 hits. Along with Sheary, Hagelin, and Sprong, Justin Schultz was a Penguin during the back-to-back Cup wins. Schultz was not amazing in his first season as a Capital, but he still managed to put up 27 points, his most since he did the same thing in 2017-18. Trevor van Riemsdyk only played in 20 games last year, but he is a solid third-pairing player who the Capitals will take after losing Brenden Dillon and Zdeno Chara. van Riemsdyk had three points with 27 blocks last season. Veteran Matt Irwin was a member of the Sabres last year, which is not an ideal location for a defenseman, or a player in general. In 24 games, Irwin was more a part of the problem than of a solution. He was not scared of making contact, with 43 blocks and 56 hits. Michael Kempny could be a huge part of the team’s defense this year, although his recent involvement on waivers suggests otherwise. He was injured for all of 2020-21. Kempny had 18 points with 72 blocks in 58 games back in 2019-20.

Goalies

Compared to contracts signed by Igor Shesterkin, Ilya Sorokin, and Carter Hart, Ilya Samsonov’s new $2 million cap hit looks like a steal, even though he was underwhelming last season. Dealing with injuries, Samsonov had a .902 save percentage with a 2.69 GAA, and a -3.0 GSAA in 19 games. Backup Vitek Vanecek was the starter for most of the regular season. He had an eventful offseason, being claimed by Seattle before the Capitals traded for him back. He had a .908 save percentage in his rookie season.

Projected Lines

Alex Ovechkin – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Tom Wilson

Anthony Mantha – Lars Eller – TJ Oshie

Conor Sheary – Connor McMichael – Daniel Sprong

Carl Hagelin – Nic Dowd – Garnet Hathaway

Extras: Hendrix Lapierre, Michael Sgarbossa

Dmitry Orlov – John Carlson

Nick Jensen – Justin Schultz

Matt Irwin – Trevor van Riemsdyk

Extras: Michal Kempny

Ilya Samsonov

Vitek Vanecek

Prediction

If the Caps’ projected lines looked weak to you, remind yourself that their top scorer from last year should be in the lineup very soon. Washington is still a powerhouse. Health will be a key factor for them, but they have depth within their starting lineup. The one concern is really depth outside the lineup, but that can be improved upon midseason. Washington will finish in third place, but have to face old friend Barry Trotz again in round one.

After another playoff disappointment, we all waited for the upcoming explosion of an offseason that the Golden Knights would have. Instead, it was a bit of a dud. They brought some guys back and made minor adds. Of course, Jack Eichel could still be on the table. But this Vegas team will be very similar to the one that Montreal just upset. Oh right, except for their Vezina winning goalie.

Offseason additions: F Evgenii Dadonov, F Nolan Patrick, F Brett Howden, G Laurent Brossoit.

Offseason subtractions: G Marc-Andre Fleury, F Ryan Reaves, F Tomas Nosek, F Cody Glass, D Nick Holden.

Forwards

Arguably the best defensive winger in hockey, Mark Stone is no slouch on offense, either. He scored 21 goals with 40 assists for 61 points in 55 games. The first captain in team history also finished third in Selke voting. He has been in the top-five for the award in each of the past three seasons. As Max Pacioretty has progressed into his 30s, his goal scoring ability has not gone anywhere. He scored 24 times with 27 assists in 48 games last season, leading the team in the former. Next to Stone, he was one of two Golden Knights to average over a point-per-game. The center depth is not great in Vegas, but Chandler Stephenson has found a home as their top line center. A great penalty killer, Stephenson scored a career-high 14 goals with 35 points in 51 games. In his 260 career games, Stephenson has sustained a 15.5 percent shooting percentage. For example, that is almost three percent more than his former teammate, Alex Ovechkin. Jonathan Marchessault put up another good season, as he scored 18 times with 44 points, finishing third on the team. While he was on an 82-game pace of 28 goals, this goes down as the first year since 2015-16 where Marchessault did not score twenty goals. After a career-high 27 goals in 2019-20, Reilly Smith fell down to 14, his lowest since 2014-15. His 25 points were also his lowest since he was with the Stars. Down the middle from the two former Panthers is William Karlsson, who has never come close to his insane first season in Vegas. He still scored a respectable 14 goals with 25 assists for 39 points in 56 games. Karlsson was the only Golden Knight to play in every single regular season contest. With goal scoring winger Alex Tuch out after shoulder surgery, the main scorer on the third line will be newcomer Evgenii Dadonov, who was Florida’s replacement for Marchessault and Smith following the expansion draft. He was a consistent scorer for three seasons with the team, but struggled after signing with the Senators. In one season for Ottawa, Dadonov scored just 13 goals with seven assists. Defensive winger Mattias Janmark returns after coming over at the trade deadline. He scored just once with four assists in the 15 regular season games, although he did make up for that with four goals in the postseason. The second overall pick in 2017, Nolan Patrick is now onto a new team as the Golden Knights scooped him up. He has been injured often in his young NHL career, but was still disappointing while mostly healthy last year. In 52 games, Patrick scored just nine points, four of which were goals. A product of the Erik Haula trade, Nicolas Roy became a regular for Vegas last season, with 15 points in 50 games. He averaged exactly one hit-per-game. Patrick and Roy are fighting for the third and fourth line center jobs. While he averaged just nine-and-a-half minutes a night over 44 games, Keegan Kolesar had 107 hits with 13 points. The 227 pound right-wing added 64 hits in the postseason. Speaking of hits, only Ryan Reaves had more on the team than William Carrier last season. The fourth liner had 131, with 15 points. He has played in 214 games for the Golden Knights over the past four seasons, but Carrier has averaged under ten minutes a game during them, with 2020-21 being his first season averaging more than that. A former first-round pick, Brett Howden was very, very bad in New York. In 42 games for the Rangers last year, he had just seven points while struggling on both ends of the ice. Howden is just 23, and has the chance to fix himself in Vegas. Peyton Krebs made his NHL debut last season, playing in four games while also having five points in five AHL games. In his final WHL season, Krebs scored 13 goals with 43 points in 24 games.

Defensemen

The Golden Knights have one of, if not the league’s top offensive defensemen in Shea Theodore. For the second consecutive season, Theodore finished sixth in Norris voting, as this year he had 42 points in 53 games. Of his 34 assists, 15 came on the power play. Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith get a lot of attention, but of the expansion draft acquisitions on the team, Theodore is the best. Veteran Alex Pietrangelo’s first year under a huge contract was underwhelming, as he did not receive a Norris vote a year after coming in fourth place. Pietrangelo was limited to 41 games, scoring seven times with 16 assists. The good news is that he carried his weight in the playoffs, with twelve points and a league-leading 76 shots. Shot-blocking superstar Alec Martinez had 168 of those in 2020-21, even though he only played in 53 games. Martinez coupled that with 32 points, his most since 2016-17. The best left-handed free agent defender returned to the Golden Knights on a three year deal with a $5.25 million AAV. Six-foot-six Nicolas Hague was productive in his first full season, with 17 points in 52 games. He imposed the physicality that you would expect from someone of his height, with 65 blocks and 94 hits. Veteran Brayden McNabb reached the 200 hit mark in each of his first three seasons with the team, but he had to settle for 98 last year. The defensive specialist also had eight points in 41 games. The Golden Knights balanced Zach Whitecloud between the AHL and NHL for two seasons after signing him out of Bemidji State, but he took on a full-time role last year. The 24-year-old Manitoban had 12 points in 51 games. Dylan Coghlan has showed off his goal scoring talent in the AHL, as he had 11 goals in 60 games in 2019-20. He spent all of last year with the big club, getting into 29 games as a rookie. A sixth-rounder back in 2018, Peter Diliberatore went right to the AHL out of Quinnipiac last season. He had 20 points in 29 collegiate games.

Goalies

With Marc-Andre Fleury abruptly disposed of, Robin Lehner will be a full-time starter really for the first time since his Buffalo days, as he split with Fleury in Vegas, Corey Crawford in Chicago, and Thomas Greiss with the Islanders. He only got into 19 games last year, but his .913 save percentage and 2.29 GAA were impressive. The new backup in town is Laurent Brossoit, who did not get much work playing that role behind Connor Hellebuyck for the past three seasons. In 14 outings, 11 of which were starts, he had a .918 save percentage with a 2.42 GAA.

Projected Lines

Max Pacioretty – Chandler Stephenson – Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault – William Karlsson – Reilly Smith

Mattias Janmark – Nicolas Roy – Evgenii Dadonov

William Carrier – Nolan Patrick – Keegan Kolesar

Extras: Brett Howden, Peyton Krebs

Shea Theodore – Alex Pietrangelo

Alec Martinez – Nicolas Hague

Brayden McNabb – Zach Whitecloud

Extras: Dylan Coghlan, Peter Diliberatore

Robin Lehner

Laurent Brossoit

Prediction

The Golden Knights being a good team is not the deciding factor on whether or not they will reach the playoffs. That factor is that the rest of the Pacific Division is awful. There’s the Oilers and… the Kraken? Flames? Canucks? If the Golden Knights were to somehow miss the playoffs, then that explosive offseason will happen. But, they will not be skipping the postseason, so don’t worry.

A nightmarish 2020-21 season for the Canucks led straight into a crucial offseason. They experienced a massive COVID outbreak and also had arguably their two best players enter restricted free agency. They may not have been good last year, but the Canucks are still in salary cap hell. It did not help that they are now committed to a declining player until the end of time.

Offseason additions: F Conor Garland, D Oliver Ekman-Larsson, F Jason Dickinson, G Jaroslav Halak, D Tucker Poolman, D Luke Schenn, D Brad Hunt, F Phillip Di Giuseppe, F Alex Chiasson (PTO), F Juho Lammikko, D Noah Juulsen.

Offseason subtractions: D Nate Schmidt, D Alex Edler, G Braden Holtby, F Jay Beagle, F Antoine Roussel, F Jake Virtanen, D Olli Juolevi, F Loui Eriksson, F Jimmy Vesey, F Jonah Gadjovich, F Kole Lind.

Forwards

After a season where he was limited to just 26 games, Elias Pettersson received a three-year extension. The Swedish center has become one of the league’s best players at the position, and is the on-ice leader of this Canucks team. He scored 10 goals with 11 assists last year, on the back of a 27 goal, 66 point season in 68 games. In Pettersson’s absence, Brock Boeser led the team with 23 goals and 49 points. The sniper could easily score 30 goals, although he is actually yet to do that in a single season. He came close in his rookie year, scoring 29 times in 62 games. As expected, JT Miller did not continue on from his surprise point-per-game 2019-20. That is not to say that he was a bad player. He still had 46 points in 53 games, with 15 of them goals. He has that flexibility to center and play on the wing. For the first time since 2015-16, Bo Horvat missed out on 20 goals, although it is tough to criticize his 19 without missing a game in a shortened season. The captain had 39 points while winning 52.9 percent of his face-offs. Coming in from Arizona is Conor Garland, who the Canucks got right as he became the Coyotes’ best forward. He only scored 12 times in 49 games last year, but also had 27 assists for 39 points, which was third on the team. His shooting percentage was only 8.9 percent last season, which explains the low goal total. Former second-rounder Nils Hoglander was one of the league’s most underrated rookies last season, as he finished eighth in Calder voting without missing a game. The 20-year-old scored 13 times with 14 assists for 27 points. Drafted tenth overall in 2019, exactly 30 picks before Hoglander, Vasily Podkolzin posses a bunch of talent as he coming to the NHL. In 35 games for the KHL’s St. Petersburg, Podkolzin scored five goals with six assists. He kicked things up for the playoffs, scoring six times in 16 games. Tanner Pearson was a great find for the Canucks over the two prior seasons, scoring 30 goals in 88 games. But he was a completely different player last season, in a bad way. In 51 games, Pearson scored just ten times with eight assists. Shooting percentage is not the only thing to chalk it up to, as the difference between last year and his 21-goal 2019-20 was by less than four percent. Vancouver brought in Jason Dickinson from Dallas right before the expansion draft, as they had an available protection spot and the Stars did not. Dickinson is a very good defensive player, although his offense is more for the fourth line. He scored seven goals with eight assists in his final season with his old club. Despite his 5-foot-10 frame, Tyler Motte only needed 24 games to get to 100 hits. He was not a total black hole offensively either, scoring six goals with three assists. He may be a bottom-six winger, but Motte averaged over 16 minutes on ice a night in the games that he did play in. Matthew Highmore was a depth forward without much substance for the Blackhawks, but he was pretty decent after coming over at the trade deadline. He scored three times in 18 games, which was a career-high on his own. Veteran Brandon Sutter returns for his 14th NHL season, with this being his seventh for Vancouver. He scored nine goals on 65 shots last year, blocking 28 shots. Journeyman Phillip Di Giuseppe played in 38 games for the Rangers last season, with eight points. He showed his physicality in limited ice time, finishing 78 checks. After scoring four goals in 44 games for Florida last season, Juho Lammikko is looking to establish himself with a new team.

Defensemen

Now signed long-term, Quinn Hughes is not in his final stage of development yet. While he has put up points, the 21-year-old’s defense was pretty rough last season. He did lead the team in assists, with 38 apples along with three goals in 56 games. Hughes allowed the most high danger chances per 60 among the team’s defenders. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is now a Canuck, as he has reached the age of 30 and has rapidly declined. Once a consistent 15-20 goals, 40-50 point defenseman, Ekman-Larsson scored just three times with 21 assists for Arizona last season. As he now has a $7.26 million cap hit until 2026-27, the pressure is on for Ekman-Larsson to retain his old self. Tyler Myers is the definition of a player who completely defies the eye-test. Myers had 21 points with 74 blocks and 61 hits in 55 games last year. He had a rough 43.22 xGF% last season. After Tucker Poolman struggled to stay as a third-pairing guy in Winnipeg, the Canucks gave him a four-year, $10 million contract. That is awful for a 28-year-old with just 120 career games. In 39 contests last season, Poolman had just an assist with 49 blocked shots and 69 hits. It was a shock to see him receive that much money in free agency. Former fourth round pick Jack Rathbone tore it up at Harvard, and last season was his first professionally. He had nine points, seven of which were assists, in eight AHL games. In an equal amount of NHL games, Rathbone had three points. Luke Schenn has been a solid fill-in player for the Lightning over their last two Stanley Cup runs. He had four points in 38 games with 99 hits. Schenn returns to the Canucks, who he played in 18 games for at the end of 2018-19. Veteran Travis Hamonic should be with the team at some point, although he is away from the team with personal matters for the reason. Hamonic had ten points in 38 games last year. Brad Hunt was a good power play guy for the Wild in 2019-20, but he was mostly on the bench last season, playing in just 12 games. Ten of his 19 points from the season prior were on the man advantage. Former first rounder Noah Juulsen comes in right after a trade with Florida.

Goalies

The Canucks officially have their goaltender of the future, as Thatcher Demko signed a five-year extension worth $25 million during the season. The 25-year-old had a .915 save percentage and an 8.2 GSAA in 35 games last year. Braden Holtby could not carry the load last year, but the hope is that Jaroslav Halak can. He had a .905 save percentage in 19 outings last season. Halak was a great backup in 2019-20, with a .919 percentage and a 2.39 GAA.

Projected Lines

JT Miller – Elias Pettersson – Brock Boeser

Nils Hoglander – Bo Horvat – Conor Garland

Tanner Pearson – Jason Dickinson – Vasily Podkolzin

Tyler Motte – Brandon Sutter – Matthew Highmore

Extras: Phillip Di Giuseppe, Juho Lammikko

Quinn Hughes – Tyler Myers

Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Tucker Poolman

Jack Rathbone – Luke Schenn

Extras: Noah Juulsen, Brad Hunt

Thatcher Demko

Jaroslav Halak

Prediction

The Canucks are not a very good team. Their depth and defense is a major issue. However, the Pacific Division is very weak. It may be my hottest take of the season, but I can see this team making the postseason in the third spot.

The Florida Panthers have acquired defenseman Olli Juolevi from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for forward Juho Lammikko and defender Noah Juulsen.

The Canucks were criticized immediately for selecting Juolevi fifth overall in 2016 over the guy who went next, Matthew Tkachuk. Juolevi has been incredibly disappointing in his NHL career, although he has never been given consistent playing time. He made his NHL debut in the bubble last year, and his regular season debut this year, spending all season with the NHL team. However, Juolevi only played in about half of the team’s games. He is still young and has talent, so there is a reason for the Panthers to take a flyer on him. Florida was able to unearth talent in Carter Verhaeghe, Sam Bennett, and Brandon Montour last season. They hope that Juolevi can be next.

Juolevi, 23, scored two goals with an assist, as well as 30 blocked shots and 23 hits in 23 games for Vancouver last season. In 2019-20 for the AHL’s Utica Comets, Juolevi scored twice with 23 assists for 25 points in 45 games.

For the sole purpose of making the team better at this moment, the Canucks accomplish that goal. They were not planning on using Juolevi, and they need forward depth. Lammikko was a third round pick back in 2014 who for years in the AHL, then Finland, then Russia. He found a role as a bottom-six wing for the Panthers over the last two seasons, although he did not exactly light it up. Juulsen is a former first-rounder himself. The Panthers claimed him off waivers a season ago. He played less than Juolevi last year and has less upside, but Juulsen can take the same spot on the depth chart.

Lammikko, 25, scored four goals with an assist in 44 games for the Panthers last season. In his NHL career, all for Florida, he has scored four goals with seven assists for 11 points in 84 games.

Juulsen, 24, had no points in four NHL games and an assist in five AHL games last season. In his NHL career for the Panthers and Montreal Canadiens Juulsen has scored two goals with six assists for eight points in 48 games.

The Maple Leafs blew it again because of course they did. With a 3-1 series lead against the wildly inferior Canadiens, Toronto should have punched their ticket to the second round for the first time since 2004. Aaaannd Montreal won three straight. Toronto’s two main stars just did not show up. The Leafs did not have a total blow-up, which is generally smart. They brought in a bunch of low risk, high reward players to help them turn around. Will it work?

Offseason additions: G Petr Mrazek, F Nick Ritchie, F Ondrej Kase, F David Kampf, F Michael Bunting, F Josh Ho-Sang.

Offseason subtractions: F Zach Hyman, G Frederik Andersen, F Nick Foligno, F Joe Thornton, F Alex Galchenyuk, D Zach Bogosian, D Ben Hutton, G David Rittich.

Forwards

Playing on an injured wrist all season, Auston Matthews was absolutely incredible. He played in 52 games, and scored 41 goals, winning his first Rocket Richard. Matthews was also a finalist for the Hart and Lady Byng. His career minimum goal total is 34, and that came over 62 games when he was 20-years-old. He scored just once in the seven playoff games, which does null a bit of his credibility with the fanbase. But Matthews is a stud. The same could be said for Mitch Marner, who had four assists and took two penalties while averaging almost 25 minutes per game. The very talented winger had 67 points, 47 of them helpers, over 55 games. He is not afraid to block a shot, and is a very underrated player defensively. The excellence of Matthews and Marner started to overshadow John Tavares last year, who put up another stellar campaign. He had 50 points while winning 55.3 percent of face-offs. Tavares did not miss a regular season game, but unfortunately was out after a gruesome injury in game one of round one. The ire of the Toronto fanbase, William Nylander has played well enough to get that title off his back. He scored 17 goals with 25 assists over 51 contests, while being the one guy to really show up in the playoffs, which earned him some fan points. There, Nylander scored five times with three assists. The real debate in Toronto camp is about who will play on the top line alongside Matthews and Marner. Nick Ritchie has the grit factor that a lot of traditional fans would like. The 230 pound 25-year-old scored a career-high 15 goals last season, while completing 102 hits. He even has that “disappear in the playoffs” function, scoring just once in 11 games. Michael Bunting is a much more interesting option. The 26-year-old earned a call-up to the Coyotes after scoring seven times with 12 assists in 16 AHL games. He rode a 26.3 percent shooting rate to ten goals over 21 games. He was good, but his results are unsustainable. In his first full season with the team, Ilya Mikheyev was disappointing. He scored just seven times with ten assists in 54 games. Mikheyev may be the only left wing on the team with a set spot entering the season. The Leafs traded for Jared McCann, just to lose him in the expansion draft the next day. The purpose of this was to protect everyone else on the team, most notably Alex Kerfoot. He scored 34 goals over his first two NHL seasons with Colorado, but he has just half of that in an equal amount of seasons for Toronto. Kerfoot’s eight goals and 23 points in 2020-21 were a career low, although the shortened season played a big role in that. He has the flexibility to play the wing and center, although his 40.8 percent face-off rate from last year is ugly. Ondrej Kase has a ton of potential, but concussions have derailed his entire career. He missed all but three games for Boston last year. The season before, he scored seven goals with 17 assist in 55 games. That itself is a solid pace. If he can stay healthy, Kase is a good third-line weapon. Jason Spezza really wants a Stanley Cup, and he believes that he can get one with the Maple Leafs. Ignoring the sad reality of that, Spezza was great last season, prompting him to return. He scored ten times with twenty assists in 54 games while playing a solid two-way game. He received a Byng vote, taking just three minor penalties all season. The Leafs hoped that Wayne Simmonds could re-ignite his scoring prowess, and he did for a bit, finding the back of the net five times in the first month of the season. Unfortunately, he would miss time due to injury, and add just two more goals the rest of the way. Simmonds had nine points with 45 penalty minutes in 38 games. Pierre Engvall was limited to 42 games last year, and he scored at a decent rate, with seven goals and five assists. That is a pace of 14 goals a season, which you would take from a bottom-six winger. The next step for the six-foot-five winger is cementing himself as an everyday player. The Leafs have two big wild cards in camp this year. Despite playing in every game for Chicago last year, David Kampf only scored one goal. He is a good defensive player, meaning that he could be Toronto’s third line center for game one. The ultra-talented Josh Ho-Sang has not played in an NHL game since 2018-19, but he has been great in the preseason. In 53 games for the Islanders in his career, the now 25-year-old has scored seven goals with 17 assists.

Defensemen

For the first time during their playoff window, the defense is a strength for the Maple Leafs. Morgan Rielly is the best offensively of the bunch, although his defense is questionable at times. In his eighth season for the team, Rielly scored 35 points, with 12 of them coming on the power play. Toronto found the perfect partner for him in TJ Brodie, who is the steady, top-pairing guy that the Maple Leafs desperately needed. The Ontario kid only scored once in the regular season, but matched that in the playoffs. He blocked 84 shots without missing a game. Veteran Jake Muzzin may not be on the technical top-pairing, but he is very much a top-two defender for most teams. He had 27 points with 94 blocked shots and 101 hits in 53 games last year. In every season since 2014-15, Muzzin has averaged over 21 minutes on ice a night. There was a fair amount of buzz over Toronto’s decision to protect Justin Holl as the fourth defenseman in the expansion draft. The undrafted, six-foot-four Minnesotan had a career high 20 points in 55 games in 2020-21, blocking 84 shots with 82 hits. After the crazy market for defensemen that followed the expansion draft, Kyle Dubas and co. must be happy with keeping Holl and his $2 million cap hit for the next two seasons. Travis Dermott has always been someone who played a lot for the team, but was clearly never trusted. He missed just five regular season games last year, and despite playing in his fourth NHL season, averaged just 13 minutes and 13 seconds of ice time a game. He had a career low six points last season. The team even trusts 21-year-old Rasmus Sandin more, as he averaged more ice time in just nine games last season. Sandin had four assists in those games. The very talented defender scored his second career goal versus Montreal in the postseason. Former top pick Timothy Liljegren is yet to make a major impact on the Leafs’ organization. He played in 23 games last year, but just two of which were in the NHL. Over the rest, he scored twice with nine assists in 21 games.

Goalies

The Maple Leafs have their new goaltender. Jack Campbell was dominant as he took the starting job right from Frederik Andersen. The late bloomer had a .921 save percentage with a 2.15 GAA over 22 starts for Toronto, winning 17 of them. Carey Price’s insane playoffs overshadowed Campbell, who had a .934 SV% and a 1.81 GAA. The veteran backup for him is Petr Mrazek who comes from the Hurricanes, who just signed Andersen. Mrazek lost the starting job last year to Alex Nedeljkovic. He was limited to 12 games, and was very good, with a .923 save percentage and a 2.06 GAA. The Leafs have a competent third goalie in Michael Hutchinson, who had a .919 save percentage in eight games last season.

Projected Lines

Nick Ritchie – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner

Ilya Mikheyev – John Tavares – William Nylander

Michael Bunting – Alex Kerfoot – Ondrej Kase

Pierre Engvall – Jason Spezza – Wayne Simmonds

Extras: David Kampf, Josh Ho-Sang

Morgan Rielly – TJ Brodie

Jake Muzzin – Justin Holl

Rasmus Sandin – Travis Dermott

Extras: Timothy Liljegren

Jack Campbell

Petr Mrazek

Extras: Michael Hutchinson

Projection

It has been said before, but the Leafs’ lack of depth is going to hurt them this year. Their solution to that was to bring in some low risk, high reward players. However, when you give those guys high ranking, it becomes a high risk. If that doesn’t pan out, then this team could be in trouble. Still, they have the star power to work things out. This is still a third place team.