Oliver Bonk is a right shot defenceman the Maple Leafs may select at 28th overall

There are few things in hockey more exciting than the lead-up to the draft as your favourite team gets to select the next generation of players that could one day join the group. Whether it’s a team hoping to get out of the basement or a contender hoping to find a hidden gem to help elevate the club, speculation on who will get selected where is always one that will get people talking.
The Leafs are no different, even if they only have three picks to work with when they head to Nashville later this month. While it remains to be seen whether they will stick with what they got, add more picks, or take some away, they are certainly plenty of intriguing options for them to consider when they are on the clock.
It is the first-round pick acquired in the Rasmus Sandin trade that is bound to get the most attention from Leafs fans in the coming weeks. After all, finding a player of equal or greater value than what they took away in the Sandin deal is integral to the transaction being a success. Luckily for them, there is no shortage of quality players for them to look at (heck, they even draft …

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Author: Michael Mazzei / The Leafs Nation

Luke Schenn: Back with the Maple Leafs or gone in 2023-24?

The Maple Leafs made headlines at the trade deadline this year by acquiring a whopping six players. While Ryan O’Reilly and Jake McCabe stole most of the attention, there’s not a doubt in my mind that the coolest story was the re-acquisition of defenseman Luke Schenn. 
If you were watching the team pre-2010, you’ll remember the early days of Schenn and how he was supposed to be the saviour of the Maple Leafs’ defensive corps. Well, if there’s one way to ensure that your top defensive prospect doesn’t pan out, it’s by handling his development the way the Leafs did with Schenn’s. 
Drafted fifth overall in 2008, he made the Maple Leafs lineup out of training camp two months later when he probably should have been returned to the WHL for further development. He was thrust into a bad situation and relied on far too much to help a disastrous Leafs defense that needed way more than the services of an 18 year-old rookie. 
His over-usage early on in his career contributed to his inability to find his footing with the team, and he was eventually traded to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for James van Riemsdyk. Schenn’s career from that point featured stints with the Los Angeles Kings, Arizona Coyotes, Anaheim Ducks, two Cup runs with the Tampa Bay Lightning, a season and a half with the Vancouver Canucks, and of course, the trade that eventually brought him back to where it all beg …

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Author: Alex Hobson / The Leafs Nation

Matthew Knies played himself into a full time roster spot in 2022-23

The motto all season for Maple Leafs fans regarding Matthew Knies was “temper your expectations”. 
When Toronto drafted him in the second round of the 2021 draft, their first of three picks, not too many people outside of draft enthusiasts knew who he was. A 6-foot-3 power forward with just under a point-per-game in the USHL during his draft year? Not bad, but this wasn’t an immediate saviour or anything. 
Excitement started to grow when Knies scored 15 goals in 33 games during his freshman season with the University of Minnesota. That excitement remained when he kept that pace in his sophomore season, scoring 21 goals in 40 games. His goal-scoring ability, which always seemed to shine in critical moments, combined with his physical game and his aggressive forecheck, was exactly what the Leafs needed up front. And, contrary to the motto mentioned in the intro, he made an impact with the team far sooner than expected. Today, he’s the subject of The Leafs Nation’s latest year in review.
The counting stats 

Team
Games
Goals
Assists
Points
+/- 
Avg. TOI

2022/23 (TOR)
3
0
1
1
+1
13:07

2022/23 Playoffs (TOR)
7
1
3
4
+3
13:07

There were rumblings from the start of the 2022-23 season that Knies would join the Maple Leafs at the end of the year. Finish up his season with the University of Minnesota, then sign his entry-level contract and join the Leafs in time for the final stretch of the NHL season going into the playoffs. Straight forward plan. He had expressed interest in doing so early on in the season, so the next st …

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Author: Alex Hobson / The Leafs Nation

Seravalli: The Leafs nearly traded for Mikael Granlund last year

The rumour mill season is always the best time of the year for being a hockey fan. Whether it’s in the lead-up to the trade deadline, on draft day, or amid free agent frenzy, there are fewer aspects of hockey more exciting than conjecturing on which player a team may be making their way to a different team.
Sometimes it results in actual transactions, other times it fizzles out into nothing while the general populous moves on to the next hot-button topic. One such case that resulted in the latter was the rumours of the Leafs going after Mikael Granlund.
The team’s interest in Granlund dates back to the 2020 offseason when he hit the open market after informing the Predators he did not wish to stay. Toronto ultimately did not have enough cap space to sign him and he thus begrudgingly went back to Nashville on a one-year deal. As the 2021 trade deadline approached a few months later, Frank Seravalli reported that Granlund was among the Leafs’ top trade targets in an attempt to upgrade their forward core. A move never materialized when Nashville got back in the playoff picture and he would end up signing a four-year extension that offseason. He would stay on for a season and a half before getting traded to the Penguins at this past deadline in exchange for a 2023 second-round pick.
That last part almost did not happen because as Seravalli mentioned in his latest Trade Targets list, Granlund was nearly traded to Toronto last year.
As we now know, the Leafs would end up acquiring Mark Giordano, Ilya Lyubushkin, and Colin Blackwell at the 2022 trade deadline. Giordano was the only one of the three players listed that had to have his salary retained because he had a …

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Author: Michael Mazzei / The Leafs Nation

Brian Burke thinks the Leafs should trade William Nylander: Leafs Morning Take

After a 12-day search, the hunt for a new GM in Toronto has come to an end.
Earlier today, the Maple Leafs unveiled Brad Treliving as the 18th general manager in franchise history.
It’s time to get to work! I think Treliving is on a private jet to Arizona as I publish this.
We kicked off the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take by discussing the Kyle Dubas hire in Pittsburgh. Coincidentally, the Pens made the announcement just 30 minutes before the Leafs officially unveiled Brad Treliving to the media. Go figure! Hmm.

As for the new Leafs GM, there’s so much to do. The next six weeks will be mighty fascinating, that’s for sure.

 
Meantime, we were lucky enough to be joined by a man who’s no stranger to Brad Treliving, or to running a hockey club for that matter. Former Leafs GM/current NHL Network Analyst Brian Burke stopped by to share his thoughts on the hire. Burkie was Rosey’s GM in Toronto. It was a fantastic reunion.

Here’s what Burke had to say about William Nylander when we asked him about the core four:
“I can address this because I addressed it in real-time. I was working at Sportsnet when it started with Nylander. I said it’s too much money, the sequence is wrong, they should have done this in an inverse order of signing. They overpaid Nylander now they guaranteed Marner would be overplayed, guaranteed Auston Matthews would be overpaid. In my mind, four guys making $40 million isn’t going to work. Even if the cap goes up, it’s not going up by more than a million and a half. It ain’t going to work. So it’s got to change.
“One guy is untradable, the other two guys are too valuable. It’s gotta be Nylander in my mind. And by the way, he’s become valuable to the point where he’s no longer overpaid in my view. I think he was, but his performance the last two years, he’s been a solid playoff performer, solid regular season performer, and it’s time I think to move on and get those assets and get your cap down.”
Lastly, for the Betano Wrap Up, we gave our Stanley Cup picks. We both like Florida.
No show tomorrow. We’ll be back on Monday at 11 AM ET. Talk then!
Don’t forget to subscribe, like, and leave us a review wherever you’re checking us out. …

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Author: Nick Alberga / The Leafs Nation

16 things on new Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving’s summer checklist

There really isn’t going to be much of a honeymoon phase with the Leafs and Brad Treliving. There will be an introductory press conference and then likely an expectation that we start seeing some decisions coming out of his office by next week at the latest.
At this point the state of the Auston Matthews and to a somewhat lesser extent William Nylander contracts need to be resolved, and that is certainly on the list and is a process that will need to start early. So we’ll double back to that, but while the Matthews contract is the most significant thing to consider this summer it doesn’t necessarily come up first on the timeline of things that need to be taken of and doesn’t have a hard deadline in June. Here’s the full list of things on the go (and this list is somewhat dependent on what Brad Treliving will be able to do as far as the draft for the Leafs.)
1. Kalle Loponen and Josh Pillar (due today)
Okay, so this is far from the priority for the Leafs or for Brad Treliving, but June 1st is expiration date for Loponen and Pillar’s time on the Leafs reserve list and they are free to go wherever now.
Pi …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

5 ideal candidates for the Leafs general manager job

It’s been 12 days since Kyle Dubas was fired. As the dust continues to settle, the Leafs are edging closer to finding their next General Manager. As the search continues, I examined all of the names that have been rumoured to be in the running, and come up with my personal top five.
Some names on this list might not be currently attainable, but these are the five that I believe are best suited to be successful (and are somewhat realistic). One name in particular looks poised to take the reins, and is the current betting favourite.
#5. Eric Tulsky
Tulsky’s days as an Assistant General Manager appear to be limited. It’s been widely reported that he has interviewed for other vacant General Manager roles, and I believe he will be appointed somewhere sooner rather than later. Tulsky’s background is certainly unique. He has been with the Carolina Hurricanes for nine years, but prior to that, he was an inorganic chemistry wiz. He holds an undergraduate degree in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard, and a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley. Tulsky was an elite individual contributor but also managed teams that enabled unique nanotechnologies to solve complex problems in multiple fields. Yeah…
Since …

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Author: Bennett Jull / The Leafs Nation

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to wait on hiring a GM

Let’s take a moment for a thought exercise. Imagine you’re starting a brand new high profile job in your field, the kind of job that you’ve perhaps only ever fantasized about, a position that would put you at the top of the pecking order, in the spotlight, and likely making exponentially more money than you had previously.
Now imagine upon starting that job, that your first task was to clean up the mess left behind by the person who was just publicly and unceremoniously removed from the position. Having that kind of immediate tension would surely put a terrible stink on the whole process wouldn’t it? Especially if the decisions you make while cleaning up that mess are sure to follow you around for the length of your time at this job, and if handled poorly could lead to your own removal. Suddenly, you may be less inclined to accept this dream job? Especially if rumour around the office is that a branch in another city is also considering offering you the exact same position, with the added benefit of less overseeing scrutiny and initial pressure.
This is the situation currently awaiting any  prospective General Manager candidates for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Whoever succeeds Kyle Dubas in the position will be expected to handle the draft, free agenc …

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Author: Filipe Dimas / The Leafs Nation

First round recap and looking ahead to the second round: Who scored the goal of the season for Toronto?

First round recap and looking ahead to the second round: Who scored the goal of the season for Toronto?

I created a bracket of 16 of the best goals from the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2022-23 season and tweeted out a poll – along with videos of the goals – on our Twitter account (@TLNdc) and gave you, the followers, a chance to vote on which goal you’d like to see advance through to the next round.
With the first round officially over, let’s go through the results to see who advanced to the second round, who got eliminated from the bracket, the percentage of votes from each matchup and what the second round will now look like.
 
Matchup one:
Winner: John Tavares vs PHI, November 2, 2022 (91% of the votes)
Loser: Denis Malgin vs ANA, October 30, 2022 (9% of the votes)
 
Matchup two:
Winner: Willaim Nylander vs STL, December 27, 2022 (70% of the votes)
Loser: Auston Matthews vs NYI, January 23, 2023 (30% of the votes)
 
Matchup three:
Winner: John Tavares vs FLA, April 10, 2023 (76% of the votes)
Loser: Zach Aston-Reese vs WSH, January 29, 2023 (24% of the votes)
 
Matchup four:
Winner: Mitch Marner vs EDM, March 11, 2023 (85% of the votes)
Loser: William Nylander vs LA, December 8, 2022 (15% of the votes)
 
Matchup five:
Winner: Mitch Marner vs NYR, January 25, 2023 (76% of the votes)
Loser: William Nylander vs BUF, November 19, 2022 (24% of the votes)
 
Matchup six:
Winner: Mitch Marner vs PIT, November 26, 20 …

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Author: Joseph Zita / The Leafs Nation

Young players offer up exciting future following a grim few weeks inside Maple Leafs organization

Young players offer up exciting future following a grim few weeks inside Maple Leafs organization

It’s been a wild last few weeks within the Maple Leafs organization, though as we move forward, the future looks as enticing as ever.

This might not have been the way fans — and now former GM Kyle Dubas — wanted the season finale to play out. However, one aspect remains certain: Whoever Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan hires will have a nice crop of players to sort through.
There’s obviously the big four, and according to reports, their future looks to be locked in with Toronto. There’s the soon-to-be UFAs, like Noel Acciari, Michael Bunting, David Kampf, Alex Kerfoot, Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Gustafsson, and Luke Schenn.
Also in the fold, though, are some of the younger players who haven’t quite gotten a chance to find their footing at the NHL level. And to me, those are the players I’m most keen on seeing once the next season gets underway.
The future isn’t all that grim after all.
Bobby McMann’s strength is his strength
The 26-year-old was an exciting addition when he joined the Maple Leafs this past season. We all remember the call-up he received, and the whirlwind that it was for McMann as he got to bring his father on Toronto’s ‘Dad’s trip’ after making his NHL debut.
“That’ll be a nice surprise for him off the plane,” McMann said back in January, while grinning ear to ear.
His debut was everything you’d expect fr …

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Author: Nick Barden / The Leafs Nation