It doesn’t feel like the Leafs are going to plug their lineup holes anytime soon, does it?
They have considerable cap space, but like many teams, they’re currently trying to figure out how to utilize it.
At any rate, prior to taking off for Europe, Zack Phillips was in for Jay Rosehill as co-host for the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Off the top, we talked some Mitch Marner and his exit from Toronto. Zack hasn’t had the opportunity to speak publicly on our forum since everything went down, so naturally, he got some mic time to air some grievances out.
After that, we got into the whole cap space conversation. On Tuesday, Brad Treliving disclosed that his top priority moving forward would be to find a top six forward. That’s easier said than done —of course. The Leafs don’t have many trade assets at their disposal, and top of that, there’s not much left on the free agent market. Translation: It could take some time. With that in mind, we did discuss the massive void on the top line and who could ultimately end up filing that role. Some internal names bandied about included Nicolas Roy, Matias Maccelli, and Max Domi. Any way you slice it, Craig Berube will have his work cut out for himself come training camp. Regardless of who it is, he needs to find a way to extract the most value possible out of every player. That’s something Paul Maurice has been able to do very successfully in Florida the past few seasons.
Speaking of which, we discussed Toronto’s quiet start to free agency. The biggest UFA name added is Michael Pezzetta. In a perfect world, the former Montreal Canadien plays a role similar to the one A.J. Greer played with the Panthers in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If that were to transpire, the Leafs would be in a good spot. Furthermore, we talked about where Nicolas Roy should be deployed. For what it’s worth, we both agreed that it should be 3C behind Matthews and Tavares.
Jay Rosehill will be back in the mix for the Friday edition of Leafs Morning Take. Join us at 11 AM ET as we sift through the latest news and notes surrounding the Maple Leafs.
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