The Leafs just got a double dose of GREAT news...

Everything just shifted with this. The Leafs just got even more good news. While the Leafs have made multiple high-profile moves this off-season, getting Gavin McKenna, Darren Radish, and more, of course, we just got multiple huge updates surrounding a couple of names that haven't been talked about enough from what we all wait for the regular season to approach in just a few weeks. These updates have some very interesting implications going forward, and once again, are better than we initially thought, as this team is now obviously changed for the better. We're gonna break down these new updates, these new comments, and more importantly, one name in particular that hasn't been getting enough attention, as well as a few more intriguing updates on this episode, but before we get into it, a very quick reminder to hit that subscribe button if you guys want a piece of the support, and Adairs, we're gonna be talking about, we briefly covered it yesterday, we're gonna be talking about some of the new names on the Toronto Maple Leafs, and we covered a lot of trade, we're gonna continue to do that because there is still possibilities for that, but all the high-profile moves, Darren Radish, Sergey Brovsky, it's kind of left some guys like Jack Roslevich and some of the other guys in the bottom six not out to dry, per se, but we haven't given them enough attention, but Jack Roslevich recently came out with some comments that have me pretty excited. So it says here, the Leafs are a team that you could say didn't have their best year last year, but it's a team that is new, young, vibrant, and ready to win. There are a couple familiar faces around a really cool, exciting style of hockey, and he wanted to be a part of it, and he goes on to say even further that with some of these new faces around, it creates a little more camaraderie. The core group that's been here for many years is excited about it as well, and we'll dive into the rest in a minute, but there's comments from the new players like Jack Roslevich, there's obviously Colton Sissons, there's Nick Paul who made some comments as well. I think it's good news now that according to Jack Roslevich, everyone seems very tight-knit, which definitely can't be said for the past couple of seasons, and it all points to hopefully a good season ahead. Yeah, absolutely, and I think when you're looking at the team that has been built, right, over the course of the last couple of weeks heading into next year, it looks completely different. We've been talking about how they added Emile Andre, you know, he's a young, puck-moving defenseman that has tremendous upside. You know, Darren Radish, he was the highest-ranked defenseman in free agency this year, and they got him before he even hit free agency, and he wanted to come home and play, and obviously we've heard those storylines over the years, and it doesn't always work out, John Tavares being the best example of it definitely working out, right? But over the years, that's not always a deciding factor or something that necessarily matters, but it's nice, right? It's nice for guys to be like, hey, I'm a Leaf, I have the passion, like a Nick Paul, like you mentioned. They've added all these different players that can do different things, and they've added right shots. That all looks really good. There's one thing in particular that Jack Rozovic has mentioned that I think is the biggest factor going into next season, and it's the fact that there was so much turnover. Now, normally, you could look at that with other teams and go, maybe there won't be camaraderie because you have so many new faces in there, right? Like, it's gonna take a minute for them to gel, but I think that there's actually an opportunity now for them to gel, whereas that wasn't going to happen if they kept the roster the same. So, obviously, I think they needed a major shakeup, and we got exactly that with 10 new pieces coming into the room, and not just that, you're putting some guys in their happy place as well. Anthony Stowers is gonna be playing with Sergei Bobrovsky again. They're gonna be reunited with Steven Lorenz, who shot on them at practice with the Florida Panthers, right? So, I think that it's really exciting in that way that that wasn't gonna happen if you kept some of the other guys around, like a Nick Robertson. I think there's a great upside there still. He's probably gonna play well in Pittsburgh, and everyone's gonna come back at us saying, oh, you shouldn't have traded him and all that stuff, but yeah, he's a great player, but he's been around for so long. You need a different vibe, a different atmosphere in that dressing room, and I think that some of these players, like a Nick Paul, like a Colton Sissons, are gonna be able to add that, and some of the messaging that is given from new coaching staff, from the captain, Austin Matthews, and the leadership group in general, will no longer, hopefully, fall on deaf ears as well, because everybody points at Matthews for the passenger's comment a couple years ago, right, in the playoffs. To a degree, not wrong. The bottom of the lineup doesn't do anything, right? And that was a bit of the salary cap structure as well, but my point is, I think there's gonna be a different vibe in the room. Hopefully, they have an opportunity now to actually come together and gel together, which I don't think would have happened if they just kept the status quo like they did going into last season, and ultimately, they have different guys in the room that can do different things, and hopefully, they all come together. Yeah, and you can see in the second paragraph here, he talks about specifically Austin Matthews. They're obviously close friends, saying, watching the way he's grown as a person, the captain here, I'm excited to get pushing with him and be able to play and pick up where we left off, which is pretty exciting stuff. Now, obviously, looking at the team and the surface of it, the bottom six has completely changed. The only name that has remained is Dakota Joshua from last year, and even he is still a relatively new name because he didn't play a ton of games last season, so it is a completely new identity. Obviously, the blue line is very, very much the same, which, outside of Darren Radish, and I guess if Emile Andre comes in and plays a bunch, which I think he will, that's obviously one of the bigger question marks, but there was also this, and again, there's a lot of talk about it. When he said excited to get pushing with him and pick some things that will translate to my game, there's the upside play of a lot of these guys, and we've talked about Jack Rosovic, who last season had a okay year, right? It wasn't bad at all, 36 points. He's a goal scorer, 21 goals, but you also have the, not polar opposite, but a very different style of play from Colton Sissons, who got a ton of money, more money than Jack Rosovic, only had 11 bucks, insane, you would look at at the surface, but he does certain things that this team needs, but I think the biggest thing is we've talked for years about getting more grit in the team. They tried that with Ryan Reeves and all that stuff. I think they finally, hopefully, at least on the surface, found a good balance of veterans, of guys who can score, and actually have a bottom six that for the first time in a while, feels like it's a threat to actually put up points and score the puck, and that's something that in the past, it was okay, the bottom six can just be gritty, they can buy time. Now, they got guys to compliment the areas that the top six can obviously score, you want awesome Matthews, but there's a lot of additions, and Colton Sisson kind of highlights that as well. I think that there's a different dynamic with this team now. All the guys in the bottom six, kind of like you outlined too, can do a lot of different things. You bring up Ryan Reeves. Years ago, it was like, hey, we need more grit, let's bring in Ryan Reeves to fight zero times, and then offer almost nothing else on the ice, and I'm sure he's a nice guy and added something, and they wanted somebody on the bench to, apparently the Leafs bench is really quiet, and they wanted somebody to kind of spark that as well. That's something that they have to find going into this year as well. That's a storyline that I want to pick up around when the season starts as well, that the bench needs to be a little bit more lively, especially what we heard in the behind the scenes and all that stuff, but if you look at the current bottom six, look at Nick Paul who they just picked up in a trade from Tampa Bay, right? He's a guy who can kill penalties, he can take face-offs, he can play the wing, he can score goals, he can play physical, he can get in your head, all of those things. He does all of those things and he can play in your bottom six. That's perfect. Colton Sissons, he can take face-offs, kill penalties, right? He can play five on five. He's the right shot. That's a good acquisition, right? Duhaime is a fast guy that is going to beat the brakes off of both. He's going to turn into a fan favorite if people are not familiar with him, so he's going to be a lot of fun to watch too. And then Rozevic and Easton Cowan, where do they kind of fit into the lineup? That's going to be a preseason question, right? Rozevic, we know can score goals. Is he going to be a depth scorer for this team? It's going to be interesting. And I like Dakota Joshua, period. Thought he was fine last year. I liked the trade when they made it and I think that they just have to find a defined role for him and if that's on the fourth line with Teddy Bluger, then that's something that they can recapture from their time together with the Canucks, then perfect. But I think looking at the bottom six now, it's completely different in terms of they can offer a lot more. They can just do a lot more. And when you look at a guy like David Camp, let's say in the past, he can skate, he can do cardio, he can maybe kill penalties, stuff like that. Outside of that, you're not going to get much out of a guy like that, right? So I think that they're a more dynamic team and this is kind of what I was hoping for when Mitch Marner was to either be traded or eventually left in free agency where you can kind of spread the money around a little bit more. There's still a question mark on defense, that's for sure. But when you look at the forward group and just the difference in terms of the vibe, hopefully, in the dressing room, that is something that I think they're taking seriously. They change things a lot. And Matt Sundin said he's going to quite literally address that going into this year. So I think that's a huge factor going into the new season. Yeah, it's good vibes now. At the same time, pessimistic side. Nick Paul's coming off of a down year. Colton's isn't coming off of a down year point-wise. Sergey Barofsky's coming off of a down year. How will they actually perform? We'll have to see. But the upside is they're going to be a very, very competitive team. That'll wrap it up. Thank you guys for watching.