Home HockeyBuzz Register Login
Bright's Grove, ON • Canada • 27 Years Old • Male
I've done this for 3 years now, with varying success, and mostly do it for entertainment... So flamers fire up your torches!

Granted, this is assuming Luke Schenn is signed for the start of the regular season, and banking on the roster staying as-is outside of that, but this is my lineup and predictions for each individual this year.

Also, I know I wrote a blog with some predictions regarding the players and the Leafs in general a few weeks back, but these are my NEW predictions.

Lupul - Connolly - Kessel
Kulemin - Grabovski - MacArthur
Kadri - Lombardi* - Armstrong
Orr - Dupuis - Brown
Bozak/Frattin/Colborne

Phaneuf - Aulie
Schenn - Liles
Franson - Gunnarsson
Komisarek/Lashoff

Reimer
Gustavsson

* if not ready for camp, insert Bozak to that line and numbers would be adjusted accordingly

Player - GP - G - A - Pts - PIM

Kessel - 82 - 41 - 28 - 69 - 20
Connolly - 75 - 13 - 49 - 62 - 48
Lupul - 81 - 19 - 29 - 48 - 50
Kulemin - 82 - 31 - 35 - 66 - 20
Grabovski - 80 - 25 - 30 - 55 - 66
MacArthur - 78 - 18 - 36 - 54 - 48
Kadri - 82 - 11 - 30 - 41 - 45
Lombardi - 75 - 16 - 29 - 45 - 52
Armstrong - 80 - 11 - 21 - 32 - 90
Orr - 50 - 1 - 1 - 2 - 142
Dupuis - 61 - 3 - 8 - 11 - 12
Bozak - 21 - 2 - 6 - 8 - 22
Brown - 75 - 6 - 12 - 18 - 105
Frattin - 32 - 3 - 5 - 8 - 12
Colborne - 38 - 4 - 11 - 15 - 38

Phaneuf - 82 - 8 - 30 - 38 - 100
Aulie - 80 - 2 - 14 - 16 - 65
Liles - 76 - 6 - 42 - 48 - 30
Schenn - 82 - 7 - 20 - 27 - 45
Gunnarsson-65 - 3 - 12 - 15 - 22
Franson - 82 - 10 - 25 - 35 - 36
Komisarek - 21 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 29
Lashoff - 12 - 0 - 4 - 4 - 4

Goalie - GS - W - L - OTL - SV% - GAA

Reimer - 55 - 30 - 22 - 3 - 0.919 - 2.71
Gustavsson - 27 - 13 - 12 - 1 - 0.901 - 3.11

---

That has the Leafs hitting 90 points with an overall record of 43 - 34 - 4 and has the team putting up 239 goals for. Now, that may seem rather high, but this is also based on most players staying healthy for the better part of the season and not sustaining any long term injuries to key components.
Filed Under:   Leafs projections   schenn   kessel  
August 21, 2011 4:09 AM ET | Delete
I think your phenuef prediction is rather low I think around 40-48 points with around 11-17 goals is all right.
August 21, 2011 5:56 AM ET | Delete
Pretty hard to do something like this. Not bad.
August 21, 2011 12:14 PM ET | Delete
Why are Grabovski's numbers so low? Only 25 goals? You think he'll take a step back?
August 21, 2011 12:15 PM ET | Delete
Also, I'm not sure Dupuis has the 4th line centre spot locked up......don't count out Mike Zigomanis.
August 21, 2011 4:49 PM ET | Delete
I stopped reading when I saw you had Kessel a 41 goals and Connolly playing nearly a full season and at nearly a 70 point pace. Is this supposed to be an accurate guess or TML fans wet dream?
August 21, 2011 4:57 PM ET | Delete
Its a good estimate all around...Kulemin is coming into a contract year so that could mean big numbers and Grabo is too. Easy to expect a step back from Reimer and if connolly can take his "Best Shape of hsi Career" into this season an stay healthy...those number I think are low. Plus you just know Burke will pull a sweet deal out of his ass...didn't like him at first..but he has really made me eat my words. Love his trades...get a true #1 center and they can do anything this season.
August 21, 2011 6:30 PM ET | Delete
Gretz I don't think kessel adding 5 goals to his current career high is that out of the question. Also Connolly missed 23 games in the past 2 seasons averaging around 70 games per.. So 75 isn't unrealistic either. I realize haters gunna hate. But at least chirp with some logic not leafs can't do this leafs won't do that blah blah blah
August 21, 2011 8:50 PM ET | Delete
Connolly played at a 50 point pace last year and Kessel isn't likely to increase his goal total by 10 goals IMO. 10 goals is around a 30% increase in scoring. That's a drastic increase for anyone let alone Kessel who has declined drastically since his "Savard" days.
August 21, 2011 8:57 PM ET | Delete
Yeah, I'm sure playing with Joey Crabb and Tyler Bozak had nothing to do with some of Kessel's struggles last year that left him with a measly 32 goals. Playing close to a full season with Lupul and the skilled if fragile Connolly could add close to the 9 goals you're thinking are extremely unlikely.
August 21, 2011 9:02 PM ET | Delete
2-50 point players on his line isn't going to give Kessel the best year of his career (by far)
August 21, 2011 9:49 PM ET | Delete
two 50 point players are still a talent upgrade on Joey Crabb and Tyler Bozak. Also, Tim Connolly has better career point-per-game numbers than simply 50 points. As in the four seasons before that where he'd had at least 40 games played, he put up better stats. I think you are being dismissive of his talent level.
August 21, 2011 10:04 PM ET | Delete
Connelly is 30. Using his prime years as a statistical average isn't really fair IMO.
August 21, 2011 10:14 PM ET | Delete
jnj
August 21, 2011 10:15 PM ET | Delete
how dumb is gretzky??? since when is 30 past the prime of your career? are you high or just fucking stupid?
August 21, 2011 10:18 PM ET | Delete
putting up to 30 plus goal campaigns in a row is a "drastic decline"?? how fucking stupid are you
August 21, 2011 11:51 PM ET | Delete
going from 36 goals in 70 games to 30 in 70 to 32 in 82 IS a pretty big decline JOEL_MC. It's a 22% drop in goal scoring since 3 seasons ago. and yes, 30 IS past your prime generally. Wow, you are in denial.
August 21, 2011 11:54 PM ET | Delete
Joel_MC I would like to see if you can find many NHLers that had sharp declines in points at age 29 and then bounced back to their peak form at age 30. You will find that it's few and far between.
August 21, 2011 11:59 PM ET | Delete
Serious question: Do you guys think Gomez will return to 70 point form? Because he is the same age as Connolly.
August 22, 2011 12:15 AM ET | Delete
Looks pretty reasonable. I see no reason why Connolly can't score 62 pts in 75 games in a top line role, and he is the best center Kessel has had since Savard. 41 goals might be a little high for Kessel, but is certainly possible.
August 22, 2011 1:15 AM ET | Delete
2 years difference between Gomez and Connolly... Connolly is 30, Gomez is turning 32. Also, Connolly's struggles have been well-documented and primarily related to health. Gomez has been healthy, but ineffective.
August 22, 2011 1:26 AM ET | Delete
Ok 30 and 31. Point stands. After 30, most players decline.
August 22, 2011 1:50 AM ET | Delete
That may have been true a decade ago, but with modern training techniques players, especially skill-guys, seem to have a bigger "prime window" than ever before. To put that in perspective 7 of the top 10 scorers last year were 30 or older. 13 of the top 30.
August 22, 2011 7:35 AM ET | Delete
experts continue to say that players dont enter there prime until they are 27 so your saying 3 years later is way past there prime? the last 4 seasons connolly has played 237 games and has 194 points thats .818 points per game so do some simple math numbnutts. 36 goals to 30 goals in 70 games to 32 goals playing with no one that even had 50 points is not a huge decline fuck me stop talking like your intelligent. i guessing you are just another ignorant american
August 22, 2011 4:59 PM ET | Delete
great blog
August 22, 2011 6:25 PM ET | Delete
August 22, 2011 6:35 PM ET | Delete
love your style Joel..........tell it like it is! These idiots all say the same crap when it comes to the Leafs. They only wish they had fans as passionate as Leafs fans...no matter how long the drought has gone on...we still bleed blue. Don't like it? go fuck yourself.
August 22, 2011 7:06 PM ET | Delete
well spoke my friend.....its not like i dont understand connolly is brittle and what not but that guy disses the leafs and then talks like he knows everything about them while contradicting yourself....if he hates the leafs so much then why is he wasting his time reading blogs about them and commenting?
August 22, 2011 9:54 PM ET | Delete
Yideboit, I've gotta say that I appreciate the time and thought you put into these predictions. Agree or disagree... at least we're talking about things during a dead-zone in hockey news.
August 23, 2011 1:48 PM ET | Delete
i agree with most of the players stats other than Phaneuf's.. he played 66 games last year and had 36 points, with a full season it's reasonable to expect at least 10 goals and 45 points
August 23, 2011 7:09 PM ET | Delete
After reading the rest, even I am shocked how low you put Phaneuf. He is horrid defensively but offensively he can be a beast. 15 goals (yes I am serious) and 32 apples for Neon Dion this year.
August 24, 2011 7:29 PM ET | Delete
no one gives a fat rats ass about your predictions gretzky. you couldnt predict snow in a snow storm
August 24, 2011 8:40 PM ET | Delete
Yes I could.
August 25, 2011 12:53 PM ET | Delete
The Defense's GPs don't add up...unless you're assuming we'll play 11 games with 7 D. I guess that's not impossible.
August 26, 2011 4:49 PM ET | Delete
like the projection
August 28, 2011 1:35 AM ET | Delete
no gretzky you're the dumbest motherfucker to ever talk about hockey so please just stop now before i embarrass you further......that is all
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to leave a comment.