Jim Hiller is making the kind of lineup tweak plenty of Maple Leafs fans have been waiting for as Toronto opens its West Coast trip against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Leafs are in Vegas tonight after their come-from-behind win Tuesday over the Nashville Predators, a game that featured strong performances from several of the newcomers. Gavin McKenna stood out in particular, picking up his first point and his first goal. Toronto will try to carry that momentum into the trip and chase its third win of the season.
The projected forward group has Kirill Marchenko with Auston Matthews and Jack Roslovic on the top line, followed by Easton Cowan with John Tavares and William Nylander. McKenna drops to the third line with Nick Paul and Colton Sissons, while Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger and Bo Groulx round out the bottom six.
On the blue line, Morgan Rielly is paired with Darren Raddysh, Jake McCabe skates with Chris Tanev, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson lines up alongside Troy Stecher. Sergei Bobrovsky is listed as the starter, with Anthony Stolarz backing him up. Zack MacEwen and Nick Blankenburg are scratched, while Dakota Joshua remains out with a core injury and Max Domi is sidelined with an undisclosed injury.
Vegas is projected to counter with Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone up front, with Mitch Marner on the second line alongside Brett Howden and William Karlsson. Trevor Connelly, Tomas Hertl and Raphael Lavoie make up the third unit, and Marc Gatcomb, Nic Dowd and Braeden Bowman are on the fourth. Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb headline the defense, with Adin Hill in goal and Carter Hart as the backup.
The most notable move for Toronto is the switch between McKenna and Cowan. It’s a curious call given how well McKenna played in the last game, but Cowan has also started the season well enough to earn a look in a more prominent spot.
There’s logic on both sides. McKenna is still settling into the NHL, and the third line gives him a chance to be the main scoring threat while Paul and Sissons handle more of the defensive load. Cowan, meanwhile, gets another opportunity to make an impression next to Tavares and Nylander, a combination he has already played with.
There’s also a path for Cowan to keep climbing if he makes the most of this chance. Without Matthew Knies in the mix, there may be room for him to fill a bigger role, even working his way into shifts with Matthews and either Roslovic or Marchenko.
At the same time, Hiller could still give McKenna some looks in the top six tonight. Since this is McKenna’s first road trip of the season, the move may simply be about easing him in, especially with the quality of opponents on this trip. The 18-year-old already has a goal and an assist from the other night, and that could give him enough confidence to keep producing.
In Other News...
Nick Robertson Is Reopening A Maple Leafs Debate Fans Hated
Nick Robertson is doing exactly what tends to complicate a clean breakup: he is making his new team look smart for taking the chance. After the Maple Leafs sent him to Pittsburgh, the winger immediately found some comfort with the Penguins and started producing right away, the kind of early impact that naturally sends Toronto back to the same old questions about what he might have been able to become here.
From the Leafs side, the explanation for moving on was practical enough, centered on salary considerations and roster fit. Still, when a player who once felt like a puzzle piece in waiting starts clicking somewhere else, it reopens the debate fans never fully loved in the first place, and leaves Toronto wondering whether the picture would have looked different with a longer runway. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Win Couldn't Hide A Problem Before This Road Trip
The Maple Leafs left their four-game homestand with a 5-4 overtime win over Nashville, but the mood around the result was hardly pure celebration. Toronto got the two points it wanted, and the underlying numbers still lean in a positive direction, yet the game also offered a familiar reminder that the margin for error on this team can disappear fast when the defensive structure slips.
Brandon Duhaime, Jake McCabe, Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson were all part of the breakdowns that helped Nashville find openings, and those kinds of mistakes are hard to ignore with a demanding road stretch ahead. A win can cover up a lot for a night, but for the Leafs, the next phase of the schedule will say more about whether the defensive issues were a one-game mess or something more persistent. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs May Be Overlooking The Edge This Lineup Still Needs
The Maple Leafs brought in Zack MacEwen over the offseason as a depth addition with a clear purpose in mind: add some size, edge and energy to the bottom of the lineup. After a brief stint with New Jersey last season, MacEwen arrived on a two-year deal and has so far been used sparingly, with Toronto treating him as the kind of forward who can give a game a different texture even without heavy minutes.
MacEwen has only dressed once this season, and the usage suggests the Leafs are still deciding how much room there really is for that brand of player. Toronto already has enough skill to survive most nights, but the question hanging over this roster is whether it is leaving itself a little light on the kind of toughness that can matter when the games tighten up later on. [Read more 🡒]