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Max Domi's role this season heavily dependent on young forward
Photo credit: Leafs Twitter/X
Max Domi's role with the Toronto Maple Leafs this season will depend heavily on whether or not Fraser Minten makes the team out of training camp.
Looking for some stability after four consecutive one and two-year contracts, Domi re-upped with the Leafs for four years with a reasonable $3.75M cap hit.
Domi's ability to play both wing and center played a large role in his deployment last season and gave the Leafs lots of flexibility with all of the injuries they endured. That flexibility will be welcomed again under new bench boss Craig Berube, but his role right now is less defined as the Leafs have a couple of roster spots to fill out up front.
Former Leaf Frankie Corrado was on TSN 1050's 'First Up' earlier in the week and believes that Domi's deployment will depend on how Easton Cowan and Fraser Minten fair in training camp.
"Tavares is going to be here... He's going to need to drive things at five-on-five a little bit more. He can't just rely on the powerplay... When it comes to the third line center, I think Max Domi did a really good job there. If the third line and bottom-six guys can give you a little bit more -- that's always going to be welcome and I think Max realizes he is more inclined offensively than he is defensively, but he cares enough that he's going to take initiative and work on things and try and become a little more well-rounded.
There's some value there (having Domi as 3C at $3.75M), but that's before the question of does Fraser Minten or Easton Cowan make this team and can they push for that spot? They will be given every opportunity to try to make the team and maybe it looks different if one of those two guys is playing in the bottom-six."
There's some value there (having Domi as 3C at $3.75M), but that's before the question of does Fraser Minten or Easton Cowan make this team and can they push for that spot? They will be given every opportunity to try to make the team and maybe it looks different if one of those two guys is playing in the bottom-six."
Given that Minten made the Leafs out of camp last season, it wouldn't come as a surprise to see him earn a spot again, and with Treliving more inclined to let his prospects earn a spot on the Leafs, he could be around longer than the 4 games he played last season.
Cowan, on the other hand, has an outside shot at making it, but it would seem more likely that he spends this season back with the London Knights. While Corrado believes that Minten and Cowan, should one or both make the team, will alter the usage of Domi, there are a couple of Marlies players that could also change the dynamic of the forward group in Alex Steeves, Pontus Holmberg and Ryan Tverberg. If the Leafs fail to make any more off-season moves, they will have a handful of rookies and cheap contracts filling out the rest of the roster, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
Source: PuckPedia
Max Domi Player Profile
Max Domi Player Profile
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 19 | 444 ANSWERS Max Domi's role this season heavily dependent on young forward Is Max Domi better suited as a top six winger or a 3rd line center? | ||
| Top six winger | 241 | 54.3 % |
| 3rd line center | 118 | 26.6 % |
| He can play a bit of both | 85 | 19.1 % |
| List of polls | ||
