from Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun,
They are close. They have the coach. They have the centre in Auston Matthews. They have the goaltender in Frederik Andersen. They even have a defence, without a definitive No. 1, comparable to the Pittsburgh defence of a year ago that was good enough for the Penguins.
What they don’t know right now: Who is their No. 2 forward?
And are the players they believed were on their way to stardom — Mitch Marner and William Nylander — really heading in that direction?
That has to be of great concern to Maple Leafs management. So much of the building of this hockey club was based on three young stars growing together, the way Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, as two young stars, grew together in Pittsburgh. The way Datsyuk and Zetterberg grew together in Detroit. The way Kane and Toews grew together in Chicago.
The Leafs have one definitive star in Matthews up front. The question now: Do they have another one?
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