News Article: 2020 roster prediction by THN in 2017

[The Podium]

Stole this thread idea from the Habs board.

2020 Vision: What the Toronto Maple Leafs will look like in three years

This team looks awful, especially that D

Click to read more...

 

[Burnie97]

Yikes

 

[TMLAM34]

Wow that’s f***ing awful.

 

[BertCorbeau]

just goes to show how useless future roster makeup predictions are because they do not account for UFA signings and trades.

 

[Nineteen67]

Everyone would fawn over the projected 2024 if it was posted today.

 

[Advanced stats]

This team looks awful, especially that D

But at that point, Zaitzev was just resigned and had done well, Liljeren and Dermott were just drafted and highly touted...there was slight reason for optimum lol

 

[CantLoseWithMatthews]

Dubas hasn't done such a bad job I guess

 

[Buds17]

9/20 still "here". Brooks and Liljegren have yet to move up full time. It's a difficult exercise to undertake without factoring in outside additions via trade and UFA. Draft and develop is an important method of team building. It's likely never going to be so easy though where picks/prospects pan out to that much of an extent.

 

[justashadowof]

Doing the rough math, that's close to the cap limit based on those players' cap hits for the 2020-21 season. There are some things I like about that team: I still miss Kadri and Gardiner and Brown (but not at the rate Ottawa is paying him this season).

How about subtracting Brooks, Gauthier, Bracco, Carrick and Liljegren for the equal cost of Thornton, Spezza, Vesey, Bogosian and Holl? Like that team better than what they posted? I do.

 

[zeke]

Stole this thread idea from the Habs board.

2020 Vision: What the Toronto Maple Leafs will look like in three years

This team looks awful, especially that D

Fun.

Matthews --> Matthews
Marner --> Marner
Nylander --> Nylander

Kadri ------> Tavares
Hyman ----> Hyman
Kapanen --> Mikheyev

Brooks ------> Kerfoot
Johnsson ---> Thornton
Brown -------> Vesey

Gauthier ---> Engvall
Bracco -------> Spezza
Grundstrom -> Barabanov


Rielly ----> Rielly
Gardiner -> Muzzin

Zaitsev ----> Brodie
Dermott --> Dermott

Liljegren --> Lehtonen
Carrick ----> Holl


Andersen ---> Andersen
Sparks --------> Campbell

 

[htpwn]

TBH, it looks like a perfectly okay team.

Elite #1C in Matthews
Solid #2C in Kadri
Two star wingers in Marner and Nylander
Top 9 wingers in Hyman, Johnsson, Brown, and Kapanen

Up front, you're left with essentially no #3C and a weak 4th line. But those are not exactly unfixable issues and the only guy who is not at least a #13F at the NHL level is Bracco.

Defensively its weaker, but not all too different than the D we've fielded for the past two years, if you discount the unexpected decline in Gardiner's game due to back issues.

EDIT: On second thought, I'm definitely downplaying the present impact of Jake Muzzin, but I stand by my general point.