The Toronto Maple Leafs begin the year with two new goalies and an absolute ton of optimism.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have the reining Hart Trophy winner, and Auston Matthews won’t be recovering from a wrist injury to start this season, so hopes of 70+ goals are not that unrealistic.
Additionally, the Leafs have a second line that is as good as most any team’s first line, they have the best defensive line (once the lineup is sorted out) and a solid cast of fourth line depth.
On top of that, they have seven top-four blue-liners (their “worst” defenseman is Justin Holl, who has skated in the top-four of the fourth best team over the last 2 seasons) as well as a minimum of three up-and-coming stars who will be playing out the year on very cheap contracts (Robertson, Liljegren, and Sandin) even if only one of those guys will be in tonight’s lineup.