Welcome back to another edition of NHL Rumours from the crew at Last Word on Hockey. We’re in the second week of September and inching closer to the start of the preseason. Some teams are still looking to put the finishing touches on their rosters as they gear up for opening night. One of those teams is the Toronto Maple Leafs. In this edition of NHL Rumours, we look at the Maple Leafs’ continued search for a top-line replacement for the departed Mitch Marner.
NHL Rumours: Maple Leafs Still Looking to Improve Roster
Rumour: On the Donnie and Dhali show, Elliotte Friedman spoke about how the Maple Leafs had interest in trying to sign Jack Roslovic.
Analysis: Friedman mentions that they weren’t interested in signing Roslovic to play the centre position. They were looking to sign him to play the wing on the top line. Of course, this is the hole that’s been left by the departure of Marner in the offseason.
The Leafs have managed to add some solid depth pieces over the summer in Matias Maccelli, Dakota Joshua and Nicolas Roy. However, there’s a massive 100-point gap that’s missing from last year’s roster. That’s not an easy piece to add. The free agent market this offseason did not have a ton of game-breaking offensive players. The top two UFA’s were Nikolaj Ehlers and Brock Boeser. Which of course landed in Carolina and Vancouver, respectively. Teams are also not just looking to offload their top players. So the Leafs have to get creative and look to replace that missing offence by committee rather than one player. Hence, the additions of the player mentioned earlier.
What Would Roslovic Bring to the Table
So why Roslovic? Well, he has shown the ability to score, producing multiple 20+ goal seasons over his career. As well as multiple 40+ point seasons. This, while not exactly getting top-line minutes. In both seasons that Roslovic managed to score 22 goals, he averaged around 14 minutes per game. While these aren’t groundbreaking numbers, and certainly not close to the potency of Marner, it’s still respectable and fits along the produce by committee theme.
What Roslovic can also bring is versatility. Roslovic can play both centre and the wing. So while the Leafs were interested in him to play alongside of Auston Matthews, he could also move to the centre ice position, barring any injuries or roster shuffling. Since the 2020-21 season, Roslovic has improved his faceoff percentage each year. In 2020-21, he was just 39.1%. This number increased to 54.1% last season. This versatility on top of his scoring ability, makes Roslovic extremely valuable.
Moves Coming?
With all that said, you can expect more moves coming from the Maple Leafs. Roslovic is still on the market despite many teams reaching out to him about acquiring his services. He doesn’t need to jump at the first offer, just the smartest one for him. While it’s not a guarantee that the Maple Leafs will circle back to add him to the roster, the possibility is obviously still there. To do so, or to make any move for that matter, they will need to shed some cap. So one way or another, we do anticipate some more moves coming from the Maple Leafs before October.
Main Photo: James Guillory-Imagn Images
