Photo credit: Dan Hamilton – USA Today Sports

During Brad Treliving’s appearance on Spittin’ Chiclets, the Leafs GM projected which young stars on the Maple Leafs are most likely to have a breakout season.

With the regular season just 8 days away from kicking off for the Toronto Maple Leafs, the excitement for a new campaign can be felt from all corners of Leafs Nation. Treliving might have added more fuel to the fire with his latest appearance on the Spittin’ Chiclets Podcast.

The Leafs’ general manager spoke on a variety of topics, and touched on some of the less experienced players on his roster and what can be expected from them this year. While all the attention is usually diverted towards players like Auston Matthews and William Nylander, Treliving believes more focus should be shifted towards the youngsters rounding out their depth. While not exactly young, Bobby McMann is someone whom Treliving believes is in for a breakout season — and he’s not the only one.

“I think Bobby McMann. He’s such a strong fast player. Hard on the puck. Last year was a coming out party for him. Even with Auston and Willy hurt in the playoffs last year, not having Bobby hurt us.

Matthew Knies we forget he was just a rookie last season. He’s a big man. He was 237 at some point last season. He’s a big strong guy that can skate. Pontus Holmberg, I really think there’s a lot of upside with this guy. Big, strong, can play up the middle. He’s one of those strong sturdy Swedes.

Obviously Easton Cowan and Grebenkin. Minten is another guy we’ve got some young guys pushing underneath.”

One major question mark that came out of their off-season was the lack of offensive depth, at least compared to last year’s roster. Treliving and company focused on bolstering the back-end and goaltending, and decided to let in-house options like Bobby McMann and Matthew Knies fight for higher spots in the lineup.

McMann is expected to play on John Tavares’ wing to start the year and will be looking to improve on the 15-goal campaign he recorded last year in just 56 contests. Knies will look to avoid the infamous sophomore slump alongside Matthews and Marner and he should be counted on in higher leverage situations a lot more this year.

Treliving also addressed Pontus Holmberg, a player who has received some flack recently. The 25-year-old should be a focal point in the bottom-6 and his two-way game, centre-ice IQ, and size should help with depth scoring and late-game situations.

He finished off by mentioning three rookies in Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, and Nikita Grebenkin adding so much versatility to their pipeline. All three youngsters are under the age of 21 and should play a major role down the road, whether that will be with the Maple Leafs, Toronto Marlies, or their respective junior clubs this season.

For a team that hasn’t had a high draft pick in quite some time, their pipeline is filled with a lot of potential, talent, and skill that should make an impact in short order.