The Toronto Maple Leafs conducted an intentional tank last season and the result of that was the number one overall draft pick. The team picked Auston Matthews and he exploded onto the NHL scene with a four goal debut.
It isn't just Auston Matthews that will be helping the Maple Leafs through their calculated rebuild. They have some other great pieces they have acquired the past few years such as Mitch Marner and William Nylander. Here are the leading scorers for rookies in the NHL so far this year
Patrik Laine has been amazing, but the next best three rookies are all from Toronto. They have a great group to build from. Having three young players like this that can produce offense at the NHL level is a great starting point and a nice compliment to players like Kadri and van Riemsdyk.
Here is what tonight's matchup looks like
You'll notice that Scott Wilson is absent from the list and Tom Kuhnhackl has been added. That is because Scott Wilson was out with Tom Sestito at the end of the morning skate. A sure sign that he will not be playing this evening. This marks the first time in a few games that Kuhnhackl will be dressed.
There may be some other line changes in store
Sullivan today said Kessel, though passing brilliantly for Pens, needs a shoot-first mentality. Also split Phil & Geno as linemates at prac.
— Bill West (@BWest_Trib) November 11, 2016
Rust was with the Malkin line and Crosby was back with Sheary and Hornqvist. That left Kessel with Hagelin and Cullen. Cullen was bumped up because Nick Bonino was given a maintenance day yesterday. The way I see it is that we may see HBK reunited this evening. It is worth seeing how the line does again now that Crosby and Malkin are both in the lineup together. Phil Kessel has good production overall this year, but most of it has come on the power play. He only has a 5v5 points per 60 of 1.18 this year. That is certainly lower than what he is capable of. He was at 1.96 last year.
Matt Murray was the first goalie off the ice and he will face off against his former junior hockey general manager, Kyle Dubas.
The Penguins and Wild played some high event hockey on Thursday night and we may be looking at another game like that
Toronto is entrenched in that lower right corner labeled 'fun'. That is because they generate a ton of shot attempts and they also give up a lot of them. Sounds good to me.
Pittsburgh can leave it all out there this evening because they don't play again until Wednesday against the Washington Capitals.
Thanks for reading!