The Toronto Maple Leafs 2020-21 season in spite of winning the North Division and individual honors such as Auston Matthews winning the Rocket Richard Trophy and being nominated for the Lady Byng and Hart Trophies has to be considered a dismal failure, as the club suffered their fifth straight opening-round defeat in the Stanley Cup Playoffs under the administration of Team President Brendan Shanahan.
The left side could be the position with the greatest transition in 2021, with the potential departure of Zach Hyman and Nick Foligno. Hyman followed up a pair of 20+ goal seasons with 15 goals in 43 games, playing mostly on the wing with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner and seems poised to get a substantial pay increase from the $2.25 million he made the last four years.
There continues to be hints of mutual interest in the feisty winger remaining with his hometown team, but it would likely mean GM Kyle Dubas following the same blueprint as Edmonton did with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, exchanging longer term for a lower AAV. With the Leafs already having over $40 million invested in their top four forwards, the club might not have enough cap space to re-sign Hyman, find a replacement for Frederik Andersen and extend Morgan Rielly before next summer.
The fallback if Hyman does leave for greener pastures may be Foligno. It was expected that the 33-year-old would return to Columbus after joining Toronto in April as a deadline rental, but there have been rumors that the big winger would be open to re-signing with the Leafs since the Blue Jackets appear to be in rebuild mode.
It appears that the Leafs have Nick Robertson penciled in as a top-six left wing replacement. Robertson posted 16 points (5 goals, 11 assists) in 21 AHL games as a 19-year-old, but was injured twice last season, raising questions of the youngster’s durability.
Joe Thornton played the left side on the top line early in the season and shifted to the fourth line later in the campaign, but to this point it is unknown whether the 41-year-old will return to the Leafs next season or opt for retirement.
William Nylander, Ilya Mikheyev and Wayne Simmonds played both wings last season, as did Pierre Engvall when he did not play up the middle, but if both Hyman and Foligno depart in free agency after July 28, the left side could be the biggest weakness on the Toronto roster.
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