The Maple Leafs May Spend October Figuring Out What They

There’s a pretty good chance the first month or two of this Toronto Maple Leafs season is going to look a little messy. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it might look a little unsettled for a while.

The team has a lot of new players to fit into roles, including Gavin McKenna.

John Chayka spent the summer loading up the roster with depth players who can play different roles and move around the lineup. Some players can play up. Some can play down. Some can move from one line to another without the whole thing falling apart.

And then there’s Gavin McKenna, who adds another interesting question to the mix. Where does he fit? That’s going to make for an interesting training camp, but it could make for an interesting first couple of months, too.

The new coaching staff will have plenty to experiment with. Lines will change. Defensive pairings will change. Players will probably find themselves playing roles they didn't expect when they signed with Toronto.

The Maple Leafs might pay the price of having a lot of new pieces.

All these new players are also one reason this season could be fun to watch. The Maple Leafs don't have to know exactly what they are on opening night. They just have to be willing to figure it out. One part of that process, however, deserves attention: goaltending.

If Toronto is going to spend October and November experimenting with lines and combinations, the team can't afford to make life unnecessarily difficult for its goaltenders. That's where Sergei Bobrovsky comes in. He doesn't have to be the best goalie in the NHL. But he probably needs to be a very good one while this team figures itself out.

Focusing early on team defence would help the Maple Leafs enormously.

That hasn't always been the strongest part of the Maple Leafs during the Auston Matthews era. There have been plenty of nights when the goaltender has been asked to clean up mistakes that began several feet—or sometimes several passes—away from the net.

That’s not a particularly good recipe for making a new goalie comfortable. The good news is that Chayka seems to have built a roster that can play a more responsible style. There are bigger, harder players. There are players who can handle different situations. There is more depth.

The Maple Leafs coaching staff will have to find answers.

Now the coaching staff has to put the pieces together. Maybe McKenna forces his way into a bigger role. Maybe one of the new depth players turns out to be more important than expected. Maybe a line nobody had on the radar suddenly clicks.

That's what the first couple of months are for. The Maple Leafs don't have to have all the answers in October. They just need to avoid making the questions harder than they have to be.

And if they can defend well while they figure things out, Bobrovsky might give them the time they need.