Josh Leivo

[highslot]

Leivo is gonna be probably a nice 2nd line winger, at worst a 3rd.

Gauthier I believe we all arrived at 3rd line centre...."probably"

Andreas Johnson - Again probably a nice 2nd line winger

Verhaeghe - no idea - He could be anything from a...and dare I say it, 1st line centre (I like all the tools and talent I am seeing, I just need to see him grow, and play with great NHL players) to nothing.

Brown is top 6, maybe top 9 or bust. I like a lot of elements in his game.

i agree on brown, gauthier and johnson. however, veraheghe would have to be better than at least bozak to be a first line c, of which i've seen no indication, let alone kadri or even nylander. he's more likely a third liner if he makes it; i don't see overall skills better than holland at this point although maybe his vision is a bit better.

leivo at best will be a third liner imo. to put it in perspective, he got 23 goals in the ahl (i know it was his rookie year). even if he gets more i doubt he will break 30, and might not even break 20 in the nhl. not second line material. lupul at his best could win a game by himself and at times rivalled kessel in impact 2 seasons ago. i don't think leivo is anywhere near that category.

 

[VL]

i agree on brown, gauthier and johnson. however, veraheghe would have to be better than at least bozak to be a first line c, of which i've seen no indication, let alone kadri or even nylander. he's more likely a third liner if he makes it; i don't see overall skills better than holland at this point although maybe his vision is a bit better.

leivo at best will be a third liner imo. to put it in perspective, he got 23 goals in the ahl (i know it was his rookie year). even if he gets more i doubt he will break 30, and might not even break 20 in the nhl. not second line material. lupul at his best could win a game by himself and at times rivalled kessel in impact 2 seasons ago. i don't think leivo is anywhere near that category.

To put it in even better perspective, he notched 23 goals in 59 games in his AHL rookie season. That's a GPG pace of 0.389. Over the course of a 76 game AHL season, that works out to 29.6 goals or approximately 30 goals. You don't think he'll improve at all over his rookie season in the years to come? He's already completely plateaued as a professional player at age 21?

 

[Community]

i agree on brown, gauthier and johnson. however, veraheghe would have to be better than at least bozak to be a first line c, of which i've seen no indication, let alone kadri or even nylander. he's more likely a third liner if he makes it; i don't see overall skills better than holland at this point although maybe his vision is a bit better.

leivo at best will be a third liner imo. to put it in perspective, he got 23 goals in the ahl (i know it was his rookie year). even if he gets more i doubt he will break 30, and might not even break 20 in the nhl. not second line material. lupul at his best could win a game by himself and at times rivalled kessel in impact 2 seasons ago. i don't think leivo is anywhere near that category.

Leivo is the first Marlie to ever notch 20+ goals in their rookie year (or so I read), yet there's no way he becomes a second line NHL player? I actually think it's likely he becomes a 2nd line player. A better defensive and grittier, but less offensive/creative Lupul.

 

[namttebih]

One more year in the AHL, mainly to all the stop gap signings this year and he should be a full time Leaf in 2015-16.

His development curve is what you like to see from a prospect.

He'll rip it up on a line with with Verhaeghe and Brown.

 

[Faltorvo]

He has easily turned into one of the brightest prospects we have in my eyes.

 

[theIceWookie]

To put it in even better perspective, he notched 23 goals in 59 games in his AHL rookie season. That's a GPG pace of 0.389. Over the course of a 76 game AHL season, that works out to 29.6 goals or approximately 30 goals. You don't think he'll improve at all over his rookie season in the years to come? He's already completely plateaued as a professional player at age 21?

Not to mention his 23 goals were 30th best in the entire AHL league. Had he played a full season, he would have been top 8 in the league for scoring with that 30 goal pace.

 

[WTFMAN99]

i agree on brown, gauthier and johnson. however, veraheghe would have to be better than at least bozak to be a first line c, of which i've seen no indication, let alone kadri or even nylander. he's more likely a third liner if he makes it; i don't see overall skills better than holland at this point although maybe his vision is a bit better.

leivo at best will be a third liner imo. to put it in perspective, he got 23 goals in the ahl (i know it was his rookie year). even if he gets more i doubt he will break 30, and might not even break 20 in the nhl. not second line material. lupul at his best could win a game by himself and at times rivalled kessel in impact 2 seasons ago. i don't think leivo is anywhere near that category.

Everyone pretty much answered the Leivo part for me.

Verhaeghe is a prett smooth skater, pretty good passer, nice wrister (he needs to use it more), and he holds the puck very well

He's already pretty good at face offs and defensively. He's still got another year in JR and then he will turn pro.

I'll attach my name to this, Verhaeghe can be anything from a 3rd line C, to a 1st depending on how well he puts everything together. He has a lot of tools, so all I can do is hope he continues to grow. Odds are against him becoming anything, but i've always liked what i've seen whenever i've watchd him.

 

[Nithoniniel]

My projections would be:

Leivo - Good middle six winger, Lupul-lite
Gauthier - Great third line center
Johnson - Good middle six winger, if he translates
Brown - Don't agree with top six or bust. The guy is a great PKer with a good overall game, he can be a pesky third liner with skill as well.
Verhaeghe - I see him as a third line center with good skating, two-way ability and a possession game

 

[sommervr]

Leivo had a weird season last year. First off he should never have been sent down from the leafs as he was playing fantastic. He gets sent down to the Marlies and continues to play fantastic. He is playing with Abbott on the top line/PP and playing with about the same ease as he did in this last rookie tournament. I am sure he was expecting to get called back up soon.

Instead what happens is they call up D amigo who had been playing like crap up to that point. I think it was a wake up call for D amigo and it worked. What happened next is Spott split up Abbott and Leivo to get some secondary scoring. Leivo goes to 2nd line/PP pretty much by himself, gets Carrick going eventually who hadn't been doing much up until that point.

Spott ended up putting alot on Leivo, basically exiled him to get secondary scoring. It worked eventually but that is alot to put on a rookie.

The takeaway is that he basically got screwed over for valid team reasons, went into a bit of a funk but overcame it and still put up those points. Whatever else happens expect even better results from Leivo this year.

 

[Joey Hoser]

He'll rip it up on a line with with Verhaeghe and Brown.

Verhaeghe still has a year of junior to play.

 

[Joey Hoser]

Leivo had a weird season last year. First off he should never have been sent down from the leafs as he was playing fantastic. He gets sent down to the Marlies and continues to play fantastic. He is playing with Abbott on the top line/PP and playing with about the same ease as he did in this last rookie tournament. I am sure he was expecting to get called back up soon.

Instead what happens is they call up D amigo who had been playing like crap up to that point. I think it was a wake up call for D amigo and it worked. What happened next is Spott split up Abbott and Leivo to get some secondary scoring. Leivo goes to 2nd line/PP pretty much by himself, gets Carrick going eventually who hadn't been doing much up until that point.

Spott ended up putting alot on Leivo, basically exiled him to get secondary scoring. It worked eventually but that is alot to put on a rookie.

The takeaway is that he basically got screwed over for valid team reasons, went into a bit of a funk but overcame it and still put up those points. Whatever else happens expect even better results from Leivo this year.

I disagree with pretty much all of this. There was no reason to keep Leivo with the big club last year, his role with McKegg was appropriate, D'Amigo had a good year... etc.

 

[highslot]

To put it in even better perspective, he notched 23 goals in 59 games in his AHL rookie season. That's a GPG pace of 0.389. Over the course of a 76 game AHL season, that works out to 29.6 goals or approximately 30 goals. You don't think he'll improve at all over his rookie season in the years to come? He's already completely plateaued as a professional player at age 21?

i don't think he's plateau'd but if you seriously think that an un-injured lupul playing in the ahl right now would not do incredibly better than leivo (including the next few years), we can agree to disagree.

 

[highslot]

Leivo is the first Marlie to ever notch 20+ goals in their rookie year (or so I read), yet there's no way he becomes a second line NHL player? I actually think it's likely he becomes a 2nd line player. A better defensive and grittier, but less offensive/creative Lupul.

i agree with your last sentence, but on second line, even if we don't have a lupul, he would have to supplant any of: nylander (possibly), kadri, jvr, fa etc.

if you look at cup contending teams (chi, pitts, la etc.), the second line these days is almost a first line on lottery teams. if leivo makes it to second line, then we probably aren't going to be contending for the cup, unless he has an explosion of offense at the nhl level.

if he proves me wrong and is really the second coming of lupul with better d, then i'd be really happy. when we drafted him, i thought he had one of the best chances to make the nhl in that year.

 

[sommervr]

I disagree with pretty much all of this. There was no reason to keep Leivo with the big club last year, his role with McKegg was appropriate, D'Amigo had a good year... etc.

McKegg stayed with Abbott on 1st line and damigo was playing like crap for the Marlies before his call up.

 

[Muston Atthews]

I think he'll be #2 RW at some point this season. Unless Nylander makes the team

 

[EXTRAS]

What do you guys see Leivo being long term, in both production and spot in the lineup alas 2nd line winger, 3rd line.

Has he played well in the NHL thus far this season?

 

[Trapper]

I think he'll be #2 RW at some point this season. Unless Nylander makes the team

I see Leivo as a 3rd line winger with the ability to move up to 2nd line for a while.

A 3rd line of:
Leivo-Verhaeghe/Gauthier/McKegg-Brown

 

[ponder]

I think he'll be a solid 2nd line winger. Pretty good size, good hustle/energy, good shot, good speed, pretty good hands, just a guy without many weaknesses. Not a star, but he has more talent than your average 3rd line winger, I see him as a 2nd liner.

 

[buttman*]

Not to mention his 23 goals were 30th best in the entire AHL league. Had he played a full season, he would have been top 8 in the league for scoring with that 30 goal pace.

Prorate everyone else's goals as well.

 

[darrylsittler27]

I see Leivo as...

A bad man's Lupul who can play more than 60 games in one year from now.

 

[WTFMAN99]

Leivo might get into the top 9 after the trade deadline if we end up trading people.

 

[Larcos_Unal]

He's been ok but there's no point in having him on the fourth line and playing 5 minutes a game. I'd rather he get sent down and play a key role on the Marlies for half a season, then bring him back up and put him on the 2nd line with Kadri.

 

[Maplebeasts]

If one of our top six guys are moved this year, which looks likely because Nylander and Leivo are probably ready to make the jump next season (with Brown arriving the season after), then Leivo should be getting quality minutes. He seems to be doing just fine right now with absolutely miniscule minutes, and he doesn't look like he doesn't belong in the show at all.

 

[headwire]

It's just pre-season, but Leivo did not look great last night from what I saw. He fumbled a couple of passes, and just looked rusty. That said, everyone on the ice is rusty and it shows. Josh just looked out of place more often than others.

Does he spend another year in the AHL? Is this a "make or break" season for him?

 

[RyanOhReally]

I thought he was actually one of the best players out there. Had great board work and always drove to the net hard. He got hit with his head down, but that stuff happens from time to time. He really comes across as a player Babcock would love to have. Big frame, good puck skills. I think he makes a case for the bottom 6