A few thought about the upcoming season :
1) Nylander's contract negotiation- we kicked around the subject here last year and the consensus seemed to be that somewhere around 6.5m for a multi year deal would be reasonable. He had a very good second full season and his numbers were comparable to his first. There are speculations that he and his agent are looking for 8mil per and if true, he'll likely sit out a lot longer. Pasternak only got 6.7 x 6, and he had better numbers. Willy should consider himself lucky if he gets the same deal. He has great skills but floats too often. One play that sticks out was in a playoff game, he had to be pushed by Rielly to cover the point. It's only one play but it that's indicative of how he could lose focus even during an important game.
2) Leafs defence : being able to move the puck up now has become ever so vital in modern day NHL. Given time and space this defence as a group did very well to supplement the offence. The trouble is/was, this defence loses puck battles more often than not. When pressured, especially by more physical forwards, this defence play scared. Rielly and Gardiner would stick check rather than engage in physical battles. Zaitsev since injured became tentative. Carrick is undersized. Hainsey slowed down from about mid season after having been over used. Having JVR and Bozak floating around didn't help, and it'll be interesting to see it's going to mean better team defence with Tavares, Johnssan and Kapanan as replacements.
3) Team toughness: when you get the reputation for being a "soft" team, you bet the first introduction from the other teams' coaches will be, hit them every chance you get. The notion that "you can't hit them if you can't catch them" only works if you spend all your time worrying about getting hit instead of taking time to make plays. Against a soft team like the Leafs, the other teams' pests will play a lot b**********. The best strategy would be to let the other teams know that if you go after our stars, we'll be after yours ; but other than Kadri, there was no one who would make other team feel uncomfortable playing against. Komarov was eager to do the dirty work until he was blind sided by OV and was never the same again. Hopefully Grundstrom and Marchment will provide some of that truculence if and when they make the team.
4) Tavares, Matthews and Marner will be the three studs that drive this offence. Marner will benefit the most because he'll be playing with either Taraves or Matthews. Whichever line he's on with will be scary good, I hope. Johnsson and Kapanan will play more prominent roles and I particularly like the upside of Johnsson. He may be the guy that make us not miss the offence of JVR too much.