Off-Season Recap - boxers's Dynasty

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Off-Season Recap

Posted on November 7, 2011 at 02:08 AM.

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The NHL�s 2011-2012 campaign is shaping up to be one full of surprises. The Maple Leafs come into the season with a young core that looks improve upon last year�s disappointing playoff misfire. A summer of personnel changes has brought aboard two veteran centers in Matt Lombardi and Dave Steckel along with a promising young defenseman in Cody Franson. Having jettisoned veteran keeper J.S. Ciguere at the deadline, GM Brian Burke and Head Coach Ron Wilson have placed an awful lot of pressure on rookie netminder James Reimer. After a promising debut at the end of the 2010-2011 season, Reimer, dubbed �Optimus Reime� by some of his fans, looks to show that he can live up to his potential. With the key pickup of centre Tim Connolly, the Leafs hope to have added a playmaker to the mix that can help feed Phil Kessel the 40 goals that management and fans have been expecting.

Here is the 2011-2012 starting line up for the Maple Leafs:

Toronto Maple Leafs Depth Chart - 2011
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
LW	J. Lupul	C. MacArthur	M. Frattin	P. Dupuis
C	T. Connolly	M. Grabovski	T. Bozak	D. Steckel
RW	P. Kessel	N. Kulemin	M. Lombardi	M. Brown
D #1	C. Gunnarsson	J. Liles	J. Gardiner
D #2	D. Phaneuf	L. Schenn	M. Komisarek
G	J. Reimer	J. Gustavsson

With Grabovski and Bozak anchoring the 2nd and 3rd lines, respectively, Lombardi will move to the wing while Steckel will chew up ice time on the 4th line and the Penalty Kill. The odd man out, at this point looks to be winger Colby Armstrong. It remains to be seen whether Coach Wilson will be able to find a place for him or if he will put him on the trading block once the season starts.

Down on the farm, the Marlies are looking to have a great year. The team is chock full of promising athletes. Top ranked prospects, Nazem Kadri and Joe Colborne will get plenty of ice time as the Leafs look to develop these two future stars. Kadri will move to the wing and join Colborne on the first line with Luca Caputi.