Jake DeBrusk headlines talented crop of power forwards linked to Maple Leafs

The Athletic's James Mirtle revealed in an article released on Wednesday that the Maple Leafs are very high on not only DeBrusk, who has spent his entire career in Boston up to this point, but also on two former St. Louis Blues forwards who played under Craig Berube. Those two players are Dakota Joshua and David Perron.

One thing that these players have in common, other than the fact that they're all power forwards, is that they all like to score goals.

DeBrusk is coming off of a down year, having scored just 19 goals and 40 points in 80 games with the Bruins last season, but his two previous seasons saw him produce 25 or more goals in each of those campaigns.

DeBrusk, like Perron and Joshua, plays with an edge, will finish his checks, and has no problem going to the tough areas and taking a hit to make a play.

Perron, the elderstatesman of the group, is 36, but is still playing at a high level and has remained productive in a middle six role.

Perron has tallied double digits in goals in each of his last 10 seasons and has been the portrait of consistency. He has scored 23 or more goals in 4 of his last 6 seasons and has a Stanley Cup on his resume.

Joshua, a former Leafs draft pick back in 2014, has spent the last two seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, finally emerging as a full-time NHLer and producing 11 and 18 goals in 2022-23 and 2023-24, respectively.

Joshua hits everything that moves and has produced a combined 467 hits in his last two seasons. The 6'3, 208-pound center could be a huge upgrade for the Leafs in the middle six.

While most of the focus this summer will be on the blueline for Brad Treliving, it's nice to know that he intends to bolster the forward group by adding a player of this archetype as well. We know how valuable these types of guys are in the playoffs every single year, do having a couple of them around sure wouldn't be a bad thing.

Source: The Athletic
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