If the Maple Leafs 2021-22 Season Started Now: Who’d Be Playing?

Over the past two weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs signed two players to two-year contracts. One was veteran forward Wayne Simmonds and the other was young defenseman Travis Dermott. Forgetting about the expansion draft and the needed signings the organization must make to fill out its roster, which will surely change things, in this post I’d like to take a minute to see where the team is right now.

Related: Maple Leafs’ Joe Thornton’s Still in Toronto: Now, Isn’t That Odd?

The Maple Leafs’ 20-Man Roster – as it Stands Currently

As the 2021-22 regular season approaches – albeit slowly, because there’s a lot of time left to make changes and things won’t get really interesting until after the Seattle Kraken expansion draft on July 21, where does the team stand. Who’s on the roster? What are their salaries? How much space is left to add players?

Roster Forwards Currently Under Contract

The following forwards are on the Maple Leafs’ roster, listed in terms of salary-cap hit from highest to lowest.

Player	Salary-Cap Hit
Auston Matthews	$11.634 million
John Tavares	$11.000 million
Mitch Marner	$10.893 million
William Nylander	$ 6.962 million
Alex Kerfoot	$3.5 million
Ilya Mikheyev	$1.645 million
Pierre Engvall	$1.25 million
Wayne Simmonds	$900,000
Josh Anderson	$750,000
Nick Robertson	$822,000
Jason Spezza	$750,000
Adam Brooks	$725,000
Total for 12 forwards	$50.831 million

The following forwards are on the Maple Leafs’ roster, listed in terms of salary-cap hit from highest to lowest.

Roster Defenseman Currently Under Contract

Player	Salary-Cap Hit
Jake Muzzin	$5.625 million
Morgan Rielly	$5 million
T.J. Brodie	$5 million
Justin Holl	$2 million
Travis Dermott	$1.5 million
Rasmus Sandin	$894,000
Total for 6 Defensemen	$20.019 million

Roster Goalies Currently Under Contract

Player	Salary-Cap Hit
Jack Campbell	$1.650
Michael Hutchinson	$725,000
Total for 2 Goalies	$20.019 million

Retained Salary

Player	Salary-Cap Hit
Phil Kessel	$1.2 million
Total Retained	$1.2 million

Other Important Notes:

(a) Total Salary Cap $81.5 million

(b) Salary Cap Space Remaining $7.075

If the Season Started Now

Possible Line Combinations

In collaboration with my hockey friend Stan Smith, who’s a long-time Maple Leafs fan, we think these might be great line combinations for the Maple Leafs – if the season started now.

Line	Left-Wing	Center	Right-Wing
First Line	Nick Robertson	Auston Matthews	Mitch Marner
Second Line	Alex Kerfoot	John Tavares	William Nylander
Third Line	Ilya Mikheyev	Pierre Engvall	Wayne Simmonds
Fourth Line	Joey Anderson	Adam Brooks	Jason Spezza

Possible Defensive Pairings

Line	Left-Wing	Center
First Pairing	Morgan Rielly	T.J. Brodie
Second Pairing	Jake Muzzin	Justin Holl
Third Pairing	Rasmus Sandin	Travis Dermott

Goalies

Starting Goalie: Jack Campbell

Back-up Goalie: Michael Hutchinson

Related: Interesting Facts in Toronto Maple Leafs’ Scoring (Goals & Assists) History

Summary

Obviously, the season isn’t starting now and there are more changes to be made. However, during the middle of the summer with still so many changes to be made, here are our suggestions about who might play for the team.

It will be fun to see how much this organization changes as the team makes changes in the next month.