The Toronto Maple Leafs would like to see individual progress from players under the tutelage of Mike Babcock, find out whether holdovers like Nazem Kadri or Jonathan Bernier can handle a primary role, see a growing pool of prospects mature in the CHL and AHL and continue to transition during a rebuilding season with a few trades and a low finish to get a high pick in the 2016 NHL Draft.
Through 11 games, the Maple Leafs have been competitive in most their games and improved structurally, but are tied for last in the league with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Anaheim Ducks with six points.
21-year-old Morgan Rielly leads the club in points, and appears to be the only one on the club’s 23-man roster who can consider himself safe for the foreseeable future. Kadri’s performance has been mixed with just one goal and five assists, in spite of being the Leafs forward averaging the most time-on-ice, while Bernier has struggled with a 0-6-1 record and now is out of action for the second straight game with a lower body injury.
The Ducks and Blue Jackets were expected to be near the top of the standings instead of competing for the highest percentage to select Auston Matthews and have slowly started pulling out of their crash dives, but the Leafs residence at the bottom of the standings was expected.
Teams such as Arizona, New Jersey and Carolina were expected to be positioning themselves for a high draft pick, but are all at or around .500 through the first month of the season.
Potential competition for pick positioning may come from the Calgary Flames (who have yielded a league-high 56 goals against and a dismal 1-5-0 home record) and from the perennial bottom-dwelling Edmonton Oilers after the loss of rookie phenom Connor McDavid to a broken left clavicle on Tuesday night.
The Oilers were 5-8-0 with the 2015 top pick scoring at a point-per-game pace, but without McDavid for “months… the club could falter unless youngsters Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Nail Yakupov and Jordan Eberle(returning from injury this week) can pick up the slack.
Toronto plays their third consecutive game at Air Canada Center on Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets. The Leafs are expected to go with the same lineup that was victorious over the Dallas Stars on Monday, including goalie James Reimer who made 43 saves and has both Leafs victories this season.
Tyler Bozak and James van Riemsdyk both missed practice on Tuesday but participated in the morning skate at ACC on Wednesday.
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The Toronto Marlies won their third straight and improved to 9-3-0 on the season with a 5-0 shutout victory over the Hartford Wolf Pack on Wednesday afternoon.
Arcobello, who played with four NHL teams last season and was demoted by Toronto last week, scored his third goal in his second game with the Marlies.
Listen to my weekly appearance with CTV London’s Norman James as we discuss the Leafs and some of their OHL prospects:
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