TORONTO – With the final roster decisions now looming over the Toronto Maple Leafs, the decision-makers are fighting temptation.
They’ve just endured a year of losing for the promise of better days ahead. They’ve now got several young talented players knocking on the door.
But they also know deep down that they have to mitigate the risks that come with keeping too many of them around for the grind of an 82-game season.
“I’ve never seen this many kids, but I’ve never had this many kids that were ready to make the team either,” head coach Mike Babcock said Friday. “We understand what’s going on. We talk about it, (GM) Lou (Lamoriello) and I, every day. He has a wealth of experience and I do too from different organizations.
“So let’s not get over-excited, that’s what happens. You get over-excited, you love the kids early and then they get no points and they’re minus (players).”
The question is how many inexperienced players is too many?
It appears that at least five rookies will start the season at Air Canada Centre. Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Nikita Zaitsev are likely to make their NHL debuts in Ottawa on Wednesday night. They should be joined there by William Nylander and Zach Hyman, who each got a short trial run with the Leafs last season.
Depending on how the final roster spots shake out, there could be more youngsters.
But the Leafs brain trust was given some pause by a 6-1 shellacking in Montreal on Thursday night. It left Babcock joking that the only worthwhile thing to come out of the trip was the smoked meat sandwich he ate.
Without naming names, he indicated that some of the young players still hadn’t shown enough commitment to the details of the game.
“You’ve got to learn when the puck’s there,” said Babcock, motioning at his feet, “you’ve got to compete for it. Like a pro does. That’s how he feeds his family. He’s got three kids at home and he feeds his family by winning that battle. You’ve just been skilling your way around because you’re better than everyone else. One guy knows what compete is, the other guy has no idea because he’s never had to.
“Now you can say ‘oh he’s very competitive’ – yeah, at the level they were at. This is a whole new level where men play against you.”
That thought will be rolling through the minds of management as the Leafs wrap up their pre-season schedule with back-to-back games against Detroit on Friday and Saturday. A big round of cuts is expected to fall on Sunday.
The final decisions are still being debated internally, and you could almost see the devil and angel on Babcock’s shoulder as he discussed that process.
“We don’t want to err on the over-excited side,” said Babcock. “We want to err, I think, on the cautious side. If we make a mistake at the start of the year they’re allowed to change your mind over 20 games in the American league and get back.
“To me, that’s the right mistake – not the other way around.”
With that in mind, let’s handicap how the battle for jobs is shaping up:
LOCKS
Forwards (10): Tyler Bozak, Zach Hyman, Nazem Kadri, Leo Komarov, Mitch Marner, Matt Martin, Auston Matthews, Milan Michalek, William Nylander, James van Riemsdyk.
Defencemen (6): Jake Gardiner, Matt Hunwick, Martin Marincin, Roman Polak, Morgan Rielly, Nikita Zaitsev.
Goalies (2): Frederik Andersen, Jhonas Enroth.
Skinny: The biggest surprise among the locks is probably Hyman, who made a strong impression on Babcock at the end of last season and has carried that over into training camp. He and Martin were the only players that received a passing grade from the coach following Thursday’s ugly loss in Montreal.
There will still be some internal discussion about Marner as he approaches the 10-game mark – which would trigger the first year of his entry-level contract – but there’s nothing to suggest he’s headed back to junior right away.
Based on these projections, the Leafs essentially have three forward spots up for grabs and one or two more on the blue-line.
BUBBLE
Forwards (9): Connor Brown, Byron Froese, Frederik Gauthier, Colin Greening, Peter Holland, Brooks Laich, Josh Leivo, Brandon Prust (PTO), Kerby Rychel.
Defencemen (3): Connor Carrick, Frank Corrado, Rinat Valiev.
Skinny: Waivers could play a factor in how some of these decisions shake out – with only Brown, Gauthier and Valiev able to be sent to the American Hockey League without being exposed to the other 29 NHL teams first.
Laich could actually have been placed in his own category called “virtual lock.” The 33-year-old is a good citizen in the dressing room who is valued for his leadership and is almost certain to get one of the depth forward spots. It would be easy to give the other two to veterans – Holland and Greening, for example – but if the Leafs elect to go with Brown and/or Gauthier instead one or both of those men will find himself on waivers.
Carrick appears to have a spot locked down on the blue line, so the only unknown there is whether Toronto is going to keep an eighth defenceman. I asked Babcock about that on Friday afternoon and he remained coy: “Yeah, might.”
That leaves a question mark hanging over Corrado, who was claimed on waivers from Vancouver at the end of last year’s training camp and didn’t play until December. The reason the Leafs carried him as an extra so long is because they didn’t want to lose him for nothing.
If he gets placed on waivers again in the coming days, he’ll definitely be claimed by another NHL team.