This off-season seemed to both last forever and also no time at all. We’ve gone through the expansion draft, Matthews winning the Calder, the regular draft, the free agent frenzy, the rookie tournament, and finally the pre-season. Now they’re all in our rear view mirror, and the 2017-2018 season for the Toronto Maple Leafs is staring us in the face.

It’s the sophomore season of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Wee Willy Nylander, who are hopefully all a year older and a year better, has come and I am excited to see them continue to wreck the league. We have the return of other beloved guys who have been around since the dark years: Kadri, Gardiner, Rielly, and JVR. We have some old newbies (Marleau & Hainsey), and some new newbies (Aaltonen, Rosen & Borgman) and we have all those young’ins now crowding the doorway to the NHL like Three Stooges Syndrome. We’ll have another year with Mike Babcock behind the bench... is this the year he wins a Jack Adams?

I can’t fucking wait!

Let’s hit the links.

From TSN’s Kristen Shilton, we know that all those roster decisions we’ve talked and debated about this pre-season will be made sometime in the afternoon.


In the meantime, Katya breaks down the Leafs’ situation and all the possibilities for cuts and waivers that will come to make their roster work.

Katya also previewed the Atlantic Division, not just in terms of where they’ll finish but also delves into what direction everyone’s going in the long term.

Seldo shares with us highlights of Leafs’ draft pick Eemeli Räsänen and his four point game over the weekend.

What better way to bring in the start of the new season than a brand new classic not norm ullman fanpost! Warning: not norm fanpost may cause excessive desire to format tables as a side effect. If your table creation lasts longer than four hours, consult your doctor.

Patrick Marleau reportedly likes to sit shirtless next to his cat and read PPP. Now I know what you’re thinking, but actually most of those things in that sentence are true!

Happy Monday everyone!

From The Branches