Toronto Maple Leafs

If the Maple Leafs Had to Play Now: Line Combinations Would Be?

The Toronto Maple Leafs were hit hard by COVID-19. However, players are coming back. If they played now, their line combinations would be?

by
Old Prof
December 29, 2021

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a team in transition, and not because they want to be. It’s been a struggle for the team to pull together enough players to form line combinations because of COVID-19 protocols. In short, so many of the Maple Leafs’ players have tested positive and have had to become a part of the NHL protocols.

Maple Leafs’ Lines Are Coming Together

Fortunately, things are coming together a bit better as players are being removed from the NHL protocols. At practice yesterday, a number of players returned and the team was able to put together some lines that made sense. If they had to ice a team, they could. That chance comes Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

As reported by Daily Faceoffs’ Jonas Siegel, these are the line combinations the Maple Leafs iced at practice.

Forward Lines

Line One: Michael Bunting – Auston Matthews – Mitch Marner

Line Two: Alex Kerfoot – John Tavares – Ondrej Kase

Line Three: Nick Ritchie – Jason Spezza – Wayne Simmonds

Line Four: Kyle Clifford – Pierre Engvall – Joey Anderson

Auston Matthews John Tavares Maple Leafs Upper Deck

Defensive Pairings

Pairing One: T.J. Brodie – Timothy Liljegren

Pairing Two: Travis Dermott – Justin Holl

Pairing Three: Carl Dahlstrom – Alex Biega

1st Powerplay Unit

John Tavares – Ondrej Kase – Auston Matthews

Mitch Marner – Filip Kral

2nd Powerplay Unit

Nick Ritchie – Michael Bunting – Jason Spezza

Pierre Engvall – T.J. Brodie

1st Penalty Kill Unit

Alex Kerfoot – Mitch Marner – T.J. Brodie – Justin Holl

2nd Penalty Kill Unit

Pierre Engvall – Ondrej Kase – Travis Dermott – Timothy Liljegren

Goalies

Jack Campbell – Ian Scott

The Lines Are There, But They’re Far From Ready

One thing to note however is that, just because the team has bodies on the ice during practice, it doesn’t mean that these players are anywhere close to being ready to play. They’ve been out of commission for a while. They were sick and they are in need of serious reps to get back into game shape.

Still, it’s good news that there are sufficient players on the ice to have at least a chance to compete.