Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Nikita Zaitsev, Mitchell Marner, Connor Carrick, Zach Hyman, Josh Leivo, and Kerby Rychel could make up “the kids” on this year’s Leafs team. Two lines of rookies and a defensive pairing.
That’s a lot of rookies. Of course I say rookies in the ‘almost eligible for the Calder’ sense, because Carrick and Nylander have plenty of NHL time already from previous seasons and Zaitsev is 24 years old.
As for how they’ll fair, they should be fine; Matthews, Marner, and Nylander have proven that they’re too good for the levels they were playing in before this season.