2025 Toronto Maple Leafs Game 1 Lineup Breakdown

2025 Toronto Maple Leafs Game 1 Lineup Breakdown

HEY. Oh, sorry. Is – Is that not what you 
needed? We’re – We’re all pretty anxious about baseball?! Well, tell you what. Let’s take a 
break and we’ll talk about a team that never makes you anxious called the Leafs. It’s a little 
bit of humor. See, fun? We’re having fun?! Listen, I know what we’re all thinking about right 
now, but mid-week next week, Wednesday, the Toronto Maple Leafs will play a hockey game 
and what’s crazy about that is we don’t know who the Toronto Maple Leafs are yet. We know most 
of them, but with an injury to Scott Laughton, there’s been a little monkey wrench thrown into 
the contraption that is this hockey team. It is a week-to-week injury and I am not happy about 
it. Noted passion haver Scott Laughton deserves better! But first, a word from Light the Night 
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experience uniting Canadians coast to coast in support of those affected by blood cancers. Funds 
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support programs. This year, with your help, we can make an even greater impact. Be part 
of an unforgettable evening full of hope, celebration, and entertainment for the whole 
family. Register, form a team, or donate at lightthenight.ca. That’s lightthenight.ca. Walking 
together for the blood cancer community. Now, at the time I’m shooting this because I I cannot, I 
can’t, I can’t handle playoff baseball. You think I can’t handle playoff hockey? I can’t handle 
playoff baseball! “What? Don’t you like it?” Oh, I like it! I like that – That’s part of the 
problem. So, there’s still a preseason game to go. Although, like. The roster is almost entirely 
Marley’s. Like Hildeby’s is going to be a net. It looks like we’re going to finally get a look 
at James Reimer. Simone Benoit is going to play because he didn’t play much this preseason 
because of injury, but he’s back. The roster is more or less set, or at least it was before 
Scott Laughton got hurt. When he first got hurt, the reports were David Kampf simply slides 
right into Scott Laughton’s spot and Bob’s your uncle. That’s easy. And we talked about it 
on the podcast. And like immediately, like right after we left the studio, the Leafs put David 
Kampf on waivers. And now we know David Kampf cleared waivers. Now clearing waivers is a good 
thing. It means the Leafs can send him to the AHL, but they also don’t have to. They can trade him. 
And him clearing waivers actually increases his trade value. The fact that Kampf went on waivers 
and wasn’t claimed doesn’t mean no one wants him. Maybe no one wants him at that price. Case 
in point, Connor Ingram. Utah said, “Hey, anybody in the NHL? Do you want Connor Ingram? 
Here he is on waivers.” 31 other teams said, “No, we don’t.” Except the Oilers called 
up and said, “Well, actually, yeah, we do, but can you retain some salary on him?” Utah 
went, “Uh, yeah, okay” and now he’s an Oiler. He got traded for future considerations, but he 
got traded. Oilers get a goalie who might end up working out for them, and Utah doesn’t have to pay 
him anymore. Well, except for what they retain, but they don’t have to pay most of his deal. If 
you want my guess, I think the Leafs might make a move tomorrow. As James Mirtle telegraphs in 
this tweet, I mean, there’s guys on waivers today. Tomorrow is going to be a huge waivers day. The 
Leafs could claim somebody, but it’s far from a guarantee. They won their division last year, so 
they’re not in a great spot in terms of pecking order for the waiver wire. Realistically, more 
along the lines of what I’m thinking is over the next few days with a little bit of clarity 
for who is and isn’t available on waivers, who clears and who doesn’t, and who makes it 
through the final night of preseason healthy. That’s a huge one. Then they’ll make their 
decision. But what we learned this morning is that it’s not as simple as just slotting 
in David Kampf into where Scott Laughton was, because Craig Berube has changed the whole thing.
Here’s what Mark Masters had and you have to take this with a grain of salt because some players 
are in this lineup because others were playing tonight. This is not a one for one look at what 
it’s going to be, but there’s some quotes here too. First line, Knies Matthews Maccelli. That’s 
already different. We thought Max Domi was going to be there. Now it’s Matias Maccelli. We’ve – 
We’ve seen this line. We’ve seen it and we were probably going to see it throughout the season 
just to change things up from time to time, but it’s not what we thought it was going to be 
already. Second line, Bobby McMann, John Tavares, William Nylander. That one stays the same for now. 
Third line, this is where things get all screwed up. Dakota Joshua, Max Domi in the middle, David 
Kampf on the right. Uh, David Kampf I don’t think has ever played on the right wing in the NHL and 
he’s never done it for the Leafs and if he has, it was for like five seconds. I think he’s purely 
there as a placeholder. I wouldn’t overthink that. But Joshua and Domi, that’s a thing. Then 
there’s the fourth line. Steven Lorentz, Nick Roy, and Bo Groulx. I didn’t know that was his name, by 
the way. I talked about him when the Leafs signed him in July. Benoit Groulx. Um I I Googled him on 
Hockey DB and his name came up as Bo. All right. It – all right. He’s young. He’s a very good AHL 
player. He’s played 65 games in the NHL. Hasn’t scored, but he can definitely fill in as a depth 
center if need be and if you don’t think so, well, you’re wrong. That’s why the Leafs signed him. 
Like, here’s the thing. I think Scott Laughton’s a really good player. I think he’s a luxury 
at fourthline center and he can kill penalties obviously, but at the end of the day, you penciled 
him in as your fourth line center and you signed guys to NHL contracts to fill in for this occasion 
when guys on your fourth line get hurt. That’s why you signed Bo Groulx and Vinny Latteri and Travis 
Boyd and guys like that. Plus, you have David Kampf. You didn’t know you were going to have 
David Kampf heading into today, but now you do. You have him. You have Calle Jarnkrok. He’s 
played center before. I don’t think he’s a center anymore, but you don’t need a center. 
You put Max Domi there. So now you have Calle Jarnkrok. We need a penalty killer. Calle Jarnkrok 
does that. We need a guy who can play either wing. Calle Jarnkrok does that. We need a guy who can 
score like, I don’t know, 12 goals. Calle Jarnkrok does that! He didn’t do that last year, but he was 
hurt. Guess what he did before that? That. Plus, oh yeah, Nick Robertson. Like right now, you got 
David Kampf thirdline right wing as a placeholder. Robertson wasn’t there on account of he’s 
playing in this preseason game. You know what we’ve seen work, at very least in October of the 
regular season. Not necessarily in the playoffs, but October of the regular season? Robertson 
with Domi. And you’re basically just putting Dakota Joshua there instead of Bobby 
McMann. Hey, you know what you could do? Just put Bobby McMann there! Joshua up with 
Tavares and Nylander? I don’t know. Last year I really wanted Bobby McMann with Tavares 
and Nylander. I thought would work. Eh, I really need to see more out of him. I do. I 
love Bobby. I believe in Bobby, but eh. Defense, I don’t think is a mystery at all. I might 
as well go over that. McCabe Tanev, yeah, I know. Rielly Carlo. Yeah, I know. And then 
the third pair is Oliver Ekman Larsson and Ben Danford? Ben Danford is junior eligible. 
He’s great and I think he’s going to have a long career. He is not making the team. I would 
be completely stunned. Benoit is playing to get extra reps because he missed some games during 
this preseason. It’s going to end up being Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Simone Benoit. It is going to 
be the exact same dcore that you saw last year. I guess the main question is who’s the extra D? 
It’s going to be Philippe Myers, I assume. Again, waiting to see who comes out of this last game 
healthy. So, here’s the obvious question to me. Why don’t you just slot in David Kampf onto the 
fourth line when Scott Laughton is hurt? You know you can play him on the fourth line. He was your 
fourth line center most of last year. You know he can kill penalties. You’ve let him kill penalties 
for you for several years now. Kampf’s been in this role since like what 2021? Would you like an 
upgrade on Kampf? Sure. You have one. It’s Scott Laughton and he’ll be back by like Halloween 
which is a pure guess but they said week to week which I hate. Day to day means don’t worry, 
they’ll be back soon. Month to month generally isn’t a common thing. They’ll just tell you the 
guy’s out like one month, two months, 3 months, four to 6 months. Week to week is gobbley gook. 
I don’t know what?! You know what week to week means? Anywhere between 7 days and the end of 
time! So, I’m going to blindly guess a month. You’re not heading into the playoffs with Kampf 
as your fourth line center. You’re like, “Hey, can we survive like eight games with him?” I think 
the answer’s yeah. But here’s why I don’t think they’re doing that. If they were simply going to 
do that, they wouldn’t have put Max Domi on the third line. To me, it makes absolutely no sense to 
be like, “Our fourth line centers out of action. Let’s weaken our first line by moving our 
first line right winger to third line center.” To me, that telegraphs, there might already be 
a move in the works for David Kampf. I don’t know. That’s just a hunch. But furthermore, it 
telegraphs that it’s easier to replace a winger than a center. They lost a center and the way 
that they’re replacing the center is by making one of their wingers a center. So then what needs 
to come into your lineup? A winger, not a center. Calle Jarnkrok can do a little bit of both. I 
don’t love Domi at center. He’s done it. He’s been okay. Again, it’s October. The points matter. The 
games matter. It’s – It’s just not the playoffs. Can you get by with something like Joshua Domi 
Robertson? Lorentz Roy Jarnkrok? Yeah. Now, before you go “No!” – you’re answering the wrong 
question. It’s not optimal. I didn’t ask you. Is this the best they can do? Because it’s not. 
My question is, is this good enough? Yeah. Okay, here’s another one. You work out a trade to 
get rid of David Kampf. You could still use the center. Could you not use Bo Groulx? 
Now, there is a right answer to this, by the way. Like, this is an opinion. There’s a 
right answer to this. The answer is either yes, you can. That’s why we signed him. Or no, you 
can’t. I’m not sure why we signed him. Again, I’m just going to remind everyone – the position 
that they’re currently needing to fill is fourth line center who can kill penalties. Dude, half the 
guys on this team kill penalties. You know, GMs talk about making mistakes at the trade deadline 
and on July 1st and how you don’t want to do that. I think GMs often make mistakes in the week 
leading up to the season, the few days leading up to the season. Take a few years ago. Sam Lafferty 
was a Leaf. He was on an affordable deal. He could play center. He can play wing. But because 
they were up against the cap, they couldn’t afford him. They had to trade him. They sent him 
to Vancouver for a fifth round pick. And then he went and scored double-digit goals there. What 
did he change the world? Was he Gretzky? No. But he was an effective player for them for a fifth 
round pick. What did the Leafs get out of that? Nothing. They got the ability to use the team 
that they had. They – “Oh, cap space.” No, no, no, no. They didn’t have cap space. They simply 
got the ability to use the team that they had and they got a fifth out of it! That’s it! They 
don’t have to do that anymore. They can hold on to Kampf. They can hold on to Jarnkrok and they STILL 
have cap space. My guess is they could probably even sign James Reimer to an NHL contract, which 
may happen in the next few hours or so and still have a little bit of cap space. We don’t know 
that. It’s a guess. All I’m saying is the Leafs don’t need to make that mistake again. In 
fact, they could be Vancouver in this situation. Imagine the Leafs and Brad Treliving pick 
up the phone and they’re the team calling up other teams going, “Hey, do you have a guy who 
can play center and wing who’s going to score 8 9 10 11 goals for us for like $1.1 million or 
whatever it was that Lafferty made?” You did your homework this summer. You added to your depth this 
summer. You can’t lose your fourth line center and then start running around like a chicken with 
your head cut off. I think the solution needs to come from within. What do you think? Leave a 
comment in the comment box down below. For now, that is it for this one. Thank you very 
much for watching. Click like if you like this video. Click subscribe if you really 
liked it. Tell all your friends – Man, there’s going to be some really exciting 
stuff on the waiver wire tomorrow and you’re going to miss it for what? The the 
the playoff game against the Yankees?!

Steve Dangle analyzes and breaks down the projected lineup for game 1 of the Toronto Maple Leafs season. Do you like their lineup construction?

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