Today I woke up a minute before my alarm, hungry not for breakfast, but the first Maple Leafs game of the season. This is nothing like the 2015/16 season for Toronto fans. This day will officially mark the franchise turn-around point; the 100th season Toronto Maple Leafs.

How better to start the season than wearing my new look Leafs jersey and hat. It’s a thing of beauty is what it is. Once the boys step on the ice I will get a surge of energy, all fired up read to see the new look Leafs. Toronto will be a young speedy team that will be coached by the league’s best in Mike Babcock, the legend that he already is. It may take some time for the lines to get fully comfortable, or the team to fully gel, as they are full of rookies, sophomores and new additions through trade.

It may take some time for newcomer Frederik Andersen to adjust to his new team, most importantly his new defense. Unfortunately he had a small injury before the World Cup began and was unable to get in some quality playing time before the season started. As we saw in Auston Matthews, it was able to give the player a boost of confidence and some more experience in the back pocket. Andersen is a capable goalie, a goalie that I wanted the Maple Leafs to go after since Novemeber 2015. I’ve kept a close eye on him over the last few years and I really do think once he is settled in he will be an excellent goaltender to grow with this young Maple Leafs team.

My wish was granted with the removal of two veteran players so Toronto was able to keep as many young players as they did. I’m still hoping Babcock is able to use Milan Michalek in a positive way and eventually trade him for more assets; it’s ever so valuable as we can see to have a quality prospect pool.

With so many young guns in the lineup it will be some fantastic hockey and some learning hockey as I’m going to call it. It’s learning because the players will be against high end competition, for a long period of time and learning the NHL grind. These are important factors; don’t kid yourself, that’s why having a quality locker room and leadership group is sought after from most clubs. Looking over the years, there have been a number of players traded because they were simply not working out with their respected team. With the new management team in place, the Leafs have themselves in great shape with not only gutting themselves of any issues that existed with past leadership, they have an incredible management group that we all know won’t take any crap from anyone. Respect is in place throughout the Leafs franchise, which is very noticeable as Toronto has moved forward since hiring Brendan Shanahan.

The Leafs have their 23-man roster all set for the start of the 2016-17 season:

Matt Hunwick
Connor Carrick
Zach Hyman
Connor Brown
Matt Martin
Mitch Marner
Milan Michalek
Frank Corrado
James van Riemsdyk
Nikita Zaitsev
Peter Holland
William Nylander
Auston Matthews
Tyler Bozak
Nazem Kadri
Morgan Rielly
Roman Polak
Leo Komarov
Jake Gardiner
Martin Marincin
Seth Griffith
Jhonas Enroth
Frederik Andersen

Wisely the management group decided not to go with a captain to start the season, but have named Komarov, Bozak, Rielly and Hunwick as the assistant captains. Looking over the roster you will be able to note that this team is very young and very skilled with boat load of speed.

Toronto will be icing six rookies on opening night in Matthews, Nylander, Marner, Hyman, Brown and Zaitsev.

Newcomer Matt Martin is hungry to punish some bodies as he sets the tone with his bone crushing hits. He’s had the most hits in the NHL every season since 2011 and you can bet he will be rattling some bones.

As we all know the lines could change, but as of now it looks as if the Leafs will be going with something along the lines of:

Komarov-Kadri-Michalek
JVR-Bozak-Marner
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Martin-Holland-Brown

Rielly-Marincin
Gardiner-Carrick
Hunwick-Zaitsev

PP1: Nylander-Matthews-Komarov-Michalek-Zaitsev
PP2: JVR-Bozak-Marner-Gardiner-Kadri

Thanks for reading.

Go Leafs Go!

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