The Leafs still have one major roster hole to address

Even in the dog days of August, you’ll find people wondering why the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t been a little more aggressive in their roster construction.

And one month and three days out from the team’s first preseason game, one position on the roster stands above all else in regards to needing improvement.

Looking at the team’s left wingers, you’ll find the one position group on the team that’s the shortest combination of both experience and pro production.

As per Daily Faceoff’s line projections, you’ll see the following four names: Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann, Pontus Holmberg, and Connor Dewar. Going off just a single-season career high in NHL points for the players involved, you’ll see the numbers come in at 35 (Knies), 24 (McMann), 18 (Dewar), and 17 (Holmberg). Holmberg’s played 91 NHL games, Knies has played 83, and McMann’s played 66. Dewar has played 190 NHL games to lead the group, but that’s only a little more than two full seasons of NHL experience.

Contrast that with a career-high 99 points from Mitch Marner or 98 from William Nylander, and you’ll see there’s a bit of an imbalance in the overall production level from the Leafs’ two wings.

Of course, point production and games played are two rather rudimentary ways to judge a player, but it’s at least a way to tell who’s been able to produce offensively before on the pro level.

But for Leafs general manager Brad Treliving, it doesn’t appear like there’s any big rush to make a transaction just for the sake of one.

“To me, we’ve still got five weeks or so till camp. And, you know, we’re not set yet. We continue to look at ways to make our team better,” Treliving told TSN’s OverDrive with Brian Hayes and Jamie McLennan last week. “I said at the end of the year we’re going to look at everything. Sometimes people fall in love with ‘let’s make a big change just to make a big change’. At the end of the day, you can go out and make big changes. If they’re not making your team better, to me it doesn’t make any sense to just make a change just to stand up and say, ‘look at it, we made this big change.'”

The Leafs hit the ice for their first preseason game against Ottawa on September 22, while their regular season begins on October 9 in Montreal.

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