Leafs coming into the 2022-23 season with the top-ranked stable of right wingers, per recent report
Any way you slice it, the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the very best teams in the National Hockey League - even despite their many postseason lapses in recent years. They possess tremendous depth at forward and on defense, with goaltending being their true Achilles heel over the past few seasons.
This year, they attempted to address that issue by trading for 2-time Stanley Cup winner Matt Murray and signed former 1st round draft pick and highly-touted 25-year-old Russian goalie Ilya Samsonov as a free agent, replacing Jack Campbell and Petr Mrazek. After tweaking their goaltending and bringing back almost their entire D corps from last year and not losing much outside of Ilya Mikheyev up front, the Leafs are poised to do some damage again in 2022-23.
While the Leafs are particularly strong up the middle now, with the likes of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, David Kampf, Calle Jarnkrok, Alex Kerfoot and Adam Gaudette all having the ability to play center, you'd think that's where their biggest impact is coming from, but according to Travis Yost, it's actually the RW position.
Yost views the Leafs' RW stable as the top set of right side wingers in the entire National Hockey League and it's not difficult to see why he's so high on them. As it stands, aside from Mitch Marner and William Nylander, the Leafs also have Calle Jarnkrok and Nicolas Aube-Kubel posting up on the right side. The quartet brings an incredibly balanced mixture of offensive upside and defensive reliability, save maybe William Nylander, who is actually a bit underrated defensively. Jarnkrok and Aube-Kubel are also excellent forecheckers, with Aube-Kubel also being very physical.
Beyond those 4, the Leafs also have Wayne Simmonds, Alexander Kerfoot, Joey Anderson and Adam Gaudette who can play the right wing, and reports that Pontus Holmberg could be NHL-ready also provides yet another viable option. That's pretty amazing depth any way you slice it.
| POLL | ||
15 AOUT | 267 ANSWERS Leafs coming into the 2022-23 season with the top-ranked stable of right wingers, per recent report Do you think the Leafs have the best set of right wingers in the NHL? | ||
| Yes | 155 | 58.1 % |
| No | 112 | 41.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
