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Vegas Golden Knights Expansion Outlook: Toronto Maple Leafs

By Richard Cardinale |
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 27 - Seth Griffith #33 of the Toronto Maple Leafs handles the puck against the Florida Panthers during the first period at the Air Canada Centre on October 27, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON - OCTOBER 27 - Seth Griffith #33 of the Toronto Maple Leafs handles the puck against the Florida Panthers during the first period at the Air Canada Centre on October 27, 2016 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs will not provide much to the Vegas Golden Knights at the expansion draft.

The Vegas Golden Knights have to build through the NHL Entry Draft to be great in the long-term. That’s what the Toronto Maple Leafs have done behind the scenes for the past three miserable seasons. Luckily for Toronto, they finally got the right group of players in place to contend for years to come.

The Leafs sit in 3rd place, just barely fending off the Boston Bruins for that last playoff spot in the Atlantic division. The team has the young talent up and down the roster to make some noise in the playoffs. Toronto would be the NHL’s Cinderella story if they were to go deep.

Rookie forwards William Nylander, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are leading the way in scoring for Toronto. Due to that fact, there’s a good chance that one of those players win some hardware as the Calder Memorial Trophy winner. Vegas Golden Knights General Manager George McPhee only wishes to get players like these guys in the Entry Draft.

Speaking of young talent, The Leafs have plenty of young players that won’t be exposed to the Vegas Golden Knights expansion draft. Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Nikita Soshnikov, Zach Hyman and Nikita Zaitsev are all exempt from the expansion draft. Toronto is one of the teams that are setup perfectly for the expansion draft.

Leafs General Manager Lou Lamoriello could use either protection scheme without really worrying about much. That’s the luxury of having so many young players already exempt from the expansion draft. If I’m Lamoriello, I use the seven Forward, three Defenseman and one goaltender keeper list.

The best and only choice in-goal for Lamoriello is to keep Frederik Andersen. Even though Andersen doesn’t have the same stout defensive core like he did in Anaheim, he’s still putting up solid numbers. Andersen is 30-15-14 with a GAA of 2.65 and .918 save percentage. Looks like Antoine Bibeau and Garret Sparks are options for the Vegas Golden Knights and they wouldn’t be bad choices for McPhee.

On the blueline it’s rather simple for the Maple Leafs. Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner and Connor Carrick will make up the defense on Toronto’s protection list. All three defenseman bring youth, smarts and a puck moving ability to the table. Potentially losing veterans to free agency like Matt Hunwick or Roman Polak could hurt.

At forward, I see Nazem Kadri, James Van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak as the locks. Additionally,  I believe Leo Komarov, Brian Boyle, Kerby Rychel and Connor Brown will round-out Toronto’s protection list at Forward. If Brian Boyle doesn’t sign back with Toronto in the summer, I see Matt Martin getting protected instead.

George McPhee could go a ton of ways with this at the expansion draft. He could end up picking one of Bibeau or Sparks which could work out in the long run. He could also see something in a lesser known defenseman like Martin Marincin. Perhaps he may want to take a flier on a guy like Matt Martin and see how he does in an expanded role.

However, the way I see this all playing out is quite simple. I believe Toronto could ask Vegas to not take one of the young goaltenders that they have in exchange for a draft pick. Instead I see them taking a flier on a young kid that hasn’t gotten much of a chance and I think Seth Griffith could be that guy.

Griffith only has six Goals and 10 Assists to his name in his young 58 game career but that shouldn’t discourage you. With the proper coaching and development this player could be potential 15-20 Goal scorer. The 24-year old can produce offense from low scoring areas and has improved leaps and bounds on his defensive game under former Head Coach Claude Julien. Last season for the AHL affiliate Providence Bruins, he impressed with 24 Goals, 53 Assists and 77 Points.

There’s obviously kinks to Seth Griffith’s game. The biggest knock is his size and only being 5’9 and he’s not overly physical. He must build strength if he wants to become an everyday NHL player. He must also carry his ability to score in the AHL and translate it to the NHL level on a consistent basis.

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McPhee must be able to take some risks and chances and that’s what he’ll get from picking Seth Griffith. Obviously if it doesn’t work out than so be it, but this could be a low risk high reward opportunity pick for McPhee. If Griffith makes it out of camp next year and gets some big minutes, I wouldn’t be totally shocked if we see him breakout, even if it may sound like a long shot.

Golden Knights Prediction: Seth Griffith

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