This should be the Toronto Maple Leafs’ starting lineup in 2024–25. The Toronto Maple Leafs top line is whatever line that Auston Matthews plays on. Auston Matthews is the second best player alive, and the best player in the history of the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise. This season, he will almost certainly enter the top five on the Leafs all-time scoring list. The only question is, who will be his linemates when he does it? The Toronto Maple Leafs Top Line in 2024-25 Should Look Like This For the longest time, Auston Matthews was paired with Mitch Marner to form one of the best duos in hockey. However, there is some question about the law of diminishing returns when you pair two elite players together. Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are both elite players who have the abilities to evelate other non-elite players to elite status. When you pair them together, they are great, but they can only turn one other player into a star when you do that. If you, however, put them on seperate lines, and you can have four players improve drastically.
This occurred when Sheldon Keefe attempted to take Max Domi under the Matthews’ wing after Marner was hurt. In response, Domi scored almost four points for every sixty minutes of 5v5 ice time with the Big Dawg.
When teamed with Matthews, Domi scored at a rate that exceeded all of Connor McDavid’s season-ending totals.
It makes perfect sense to pair them together again, and I highly doubt Domi would have resigned if this hadn’t been the plan. Because of his poor defense, Domi needs to be kept very safe in order to get the minutes he needs as a center.
Domi playing third line center causes a lot of problems because you still need a shut-down line. As a result, the fourth line plays more, and the team’s best players aren’t able to play as many easy minutes, which is something a coach needs to do to gain an advantage (for more on this topic, see how the Rangers use Panarin).
With Matthews and Domi, we essentially have a top line duo, but who should be their winger?
William Nylander gets my vote.
Nylander doesn’t drive a line the same way that Marner and Matthews do. He is a great player, but he is also, like Domi, a defensive liability. Matthews is a stong defensive player, but the Leafs would do well to try to find him some easy matchups, and this line really works for that purpose.
Matthews presense means you can use Nylander and Domi against harder competition than you normally would, and it frees up the other lines significantly especially because the two players the coach would normally look to shelter don’t need to be sheltered.
Another factor here is that with Auston Matthews taking all the attention, William Nylander will get open looks that are not normally so easy to get for a 40 goal scorer.
