September 21st this year was a day that Leafs fans were longing for ever since July. This was the beginning of the preseason. After a dreadfully slow month of August, Leafs fans were more than ready for their first look at NHL action in the 2015-16 season, despite expectations being low. Today, I'll be looking at takeaways and essentially doing a review of the Leafs preseason, as well as a preview for the start of the new season. Enjoy.
PRESEASON
PTO's
The Leafs brought in many different players this season on Professional Tryouts (PTO's) in an effort to create a higher compete level during preseason. These players included Devin Setoguchi, Curtis Glencross, Brad Boyes, and Mark Fraser respectively. In the end, only Brad Boyes performed well enough at camp to earn himself a contract, and a cheap one at only 750k for one season. Setoguchi aimed for a bounce back season, but didn't produce, and is expected to sign in Europe for the upcoming season. Glencross had an alright campaign, but with the rookies playing better he failed to earn a contract, and has since attended Colorado Avalanche camp on a second PTO, but was released from that as well. Fraser was released after the Ottawa Senators signed him to a two way deal. Boyes has the potential to be a 20 goal scorer, so he could prove to be a valuable pickup for the Leafs.
THE YOUTH
With the hiring of head coach Mike Babcock back in May, everyone knew that this was a sign that their new management regime would preach patience with their prospects, which is the complete opposite of what would take place during the previous Brian Burke era. Babcock's former team, the Detroit Red Wings, have several players such as Tomas Tatar and Gustav Nyquist who played over 200 career AHL games before being given a crack at the NHL team, and both are solid young players now. Naturally, the Leafs were expected to do the same thing with Babcock running the show, but two players in particular surprised the coaching staff, and those two players were youngsters William Nylander and Connor Brown. Brown was a late round pick in 2012, who broke out with a monster season with the Erie Otters in the OHL in 2014, recording average two points per game, and Nylander was the Leafs first round pick in the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, who joined the Marlies in January 2014 and finished the season with 32 points in 37 games. Nylander and Brown narrowly missed the opening night roster, being among several cuts from yesterday. Brown and Nylander gave the coaching staff a good impression at camp, so don't be surprised if they see some games this season.
THE AFTERMATH
The Leafs rounds of cuts went accordingly to plan. The first round was junior players being returned to their respective teams, the second round was PTOs and more junior players being released, and the final round was mainly extra Marlies players who performed well at camp being demoted for the time being. There were a couple of surprises among the final rounds of cuts, one being that the Leafs demoted young defenseman Stuart Percy, who realistically should have made the team after he initially cracked the lineup on a much stronger Leafs team the previous season. That being said, the Leafs kept prospect Scott Harrington on the opening night roster, whom they acquired in the Phil Kessel trade. It's difficult to tell who will benefit from NHL playing time and who won't at the start of the season, but it'll make for some interesting storylines.
BEGINNING OF SEASON PREVIEW
THE DEPTH CHART
As of now, this is what a likely Leafs lineup looks like heading into the upcoming season.
JVR - Kadri - Boyes
Lupul - Bozak - Grabner
Komarov - Holland - Matthias
Winnik - Spaling - Parenteau
Hunwick - Phaneuf
Gardiner - Harrington
Rielly - Marincin
Bernier
Reimer
Three notable names that aren't on my roster here are Richard Panik, Roman Polak, and Mark Arcobello. This is very likely to change, considering injuries and suspensions are bound to happen. The Leafs will be shuffling players in and out of the lineup, and pending the potential departure of players such as Roman Polak, P.A Parenteau, Nick Spaling, and Brad Boyes for draft picks, it could give the Leafs a chance to take a closer look at prospects such as Josh Leivo, Stuart Percy, William Nylander, and Connor Brown.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment