Maple Leafs weigh internal, external options at left wing

TORONTO -- While the 2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs are on track to bring back the same core forwards, shored up their blueline with a veteran boost, and have installed a hungry — if unproven — goaltending tandem, one roster position stands as clearly weaker from 2023-24.

Left wing.

While taking a couple months to find his groove (and the back of the net), scrappy lefty Tyler Bertuzzi excelled down the stretch and into the post-season. The 21-goal man crawled under Brad Marchand's skin and looked integral to the Leafs' top six.

Then the free agent signed a richer deal (four years at $5.5 million per season) with the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks, moving within two sweaters of an Original 6 complete set.

Bertuzzi was never replaced. (His style cannot be.)

It should not have come as a shock, then, to read colleague Elliotte Friedman's weekend report that the Maple Leafs — a team that has long leaned on its potent right side — are still “considering left-wing options” as training camp looms three weeks away.

Toronto has a collection of flawed but intriguing internal options to skate on the left side, of course. But losing Bertuzzi's blend of tenacity, forechecking and scoring touch will be difficult.

Complicating matters is the Maple Leafs' shaky centre depth, which would be more expensive to remedy.

John Tavares and Max Domi are pencilled in as middle-six pivots as the best available options. But Domi — more consistent offensively than defensively — happily oscillates between all forward positions. And Tavares, who will be 34 when the puck drops, could eventually move to left wing in the final stage of his career.

However new head coach Craig Berube opts to draw it up on the whiteboard, an imperfect left side should make for some intriguing camp competition and line juggling. Especially if/when general manager Brad Treliving signs a veteran winger (or two) to a one-year contract or a PTO.

Let's begin with the left wings already under club control who should be eager to snatch some of Bertuzzi's freed-up minutes (16:03 — easily tops among all Leafs LWs):

• Matthew Knies shone in the playoffs and will be expected to take a significant step forward in his sophomore season, a contract year no less. That said, the NHL grind took its toll on the power forward, who averaged 13:41 as a rookie and scored 15 goals mostly alongside elite linemates.

• Late bloomer Bobby McMann, 28, scored as often as Knies despite not making the team out of camp. Injuries are a concern here. But in flashes, McMann flexed the playmaking and tenacity to grab more of a permanent middle-six role. Looks like a Berube guy.

• Nick Robertson announced loud and clear that he can score at the NHL level, potting 14 goals in 56 games despite third-line minutes and next to no power-play looks. Then he announced quietly that he'd like a trade. Robertson remains unsigned, unsatisfied and unestablished as a two-way, every-day forward. He could snatch a middle-six spot in Toronto. Or he could be on the move.

• An improving Alex Steeves turned a 27-goal, 57-point AHL campaign into a fresh one-year contract with the organization that requires him to clear waivers if he can't make the cut out of Leafs camp. He'll arrive inspired and on the bubble.

• Like his older brother, 26-year-old Alex Nylander is right shot happy to take reps on the left wing. Nylander — who scored a career-high 11 goals in 28 NHL games last season with the Columbus Blue Jackets — would be even happier if he can upgrade his Marlies contract to a Maple Leafs one.

• Wild card Nikita Grebenkin, a 21-year-old KHL prospect, comes in hot off a championship run with Magnitogorsk. A left shot who usually skates on the right wing, the Russian is quite the long shot, but the organization is high on his potential.

Now to the fun stuff: Which left wings outside the organization could Treliving recruit?

While a significant trade cannot be ruled out, as Yaroslav Askarov's late-August transfer to San Jose reminded, we're not certain Treliving is going to splash the pot with, say, a Nikolaj Ehlers deal at this stage. (Though our page view count would welcome it.)

More realistic (and affordable) would be extending an offer to a desperate left wing still lingering on the UFA market nearly two months since becoming untethered.

• Free agent Max Pacioretty tops the list and has six 30-goal campaigns on his 902-game resume. The veteran has firm offers from at least three teams, according to Frank Seravalli, and is expected to decide on his fifth team soon.

Because Pacioretty is 35 years old, he's eligible for a bonus-laden contract like the one he signed with the Washington Capitals last season on the, um, heels of back-to-back Achilles tendon tears. Pacioretty put up a respectable 23 points in 47 games for the Caps, averaging 14:26 of ice time.

Speed and injury will be a concern, naturally, but the price, term and risk should be low.

Aging scorers James van Riemsdyk and Mike Hoffman fall into a similar category, but  Pacioretty will be a compelling case after a full summer of training, not only rehab.

• Nick Cousins is building a case for public enemy No. 1 in the NHL, but he just brought the Stanley Cup to his native Belleville, Ont., last week and is still searching for employment.

Cousins memorably snuffed out Toronto's longest playoff run of the past 20 years, then said: “My daughter is only 11 months. It’s something I’ll tell her about when she grows up.”

He tumbled from Florida's top six in 2023 to its fourth line and was an occasional healthy scratch during the Panthers' 2024 champion run. Still, the agitator could fill the veteran depth wing role vacated by left wing Noah Gregor.

• Matt Martin is a somewhat sentimental option, what with the affable ex-Leaf sitting on the unemployment line just 45 games short of 1,000.

A solid teammate and leader who knows his role, Martin is tight with the likes of Mitch Marner and brings a brand of hockey befitting of Berube and Treliving. (The GM won’t let a player’s date of birth scare him away if he likes the asset.)

Is there really room for both Martin and Ryan Reaves, 37, on the same roster, though? In a sport that is only accelerating its fourth lines?

Martin has been training with current Islanders this summer and has made it clear that he doesn't want to hang up the blades just yet. Even if the phone isn't ringing off the hook.

“I haven’t really been through this one before. Last time I was a free agent I was 27, there were some offers on the table, and it was more about picking the right place," Martin told The Athletic Monday.

“I’m 35 now. I have a family. It’s different than last time. But I think it’ll all work itself out."