New Leafs And Their Role – Jack Roslovic

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Toronto Maple Leafs GM John Chayka made a major reshuffle of his roster, starting with the trade of Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit to Philadelphia last month. The club added defenseman Emil Andrae and began restocking the shelves with the signings of forwards Colton Sissons, Jack Roslovic, Teddy Blueger, Brandon Duhaime, and Zach MacEwen, and trading Dennis Hildeby to Tampa Bay for Nick Paul.

Over the next week, we will look at the players Chayka brought in and look at what role they are likely to be tasked with filling under new head coach Jim Hiller next season

Jack Roslovic

The 29-year-old forward has been on the move often over his 10-year NHL career. Originally a late first-round pick of Winnipeg in 2015, the Columbus, OH native played three seasons with the Jets before being traded to his hometown Blue Jackets with Patrik Laine for Pierre-Luc Dubois in 2021. Roslovic posted a career-high 22 goals and 45 points in 2022, but slumped to 11 goals the following year and was traded as a rental to the NY Rangers at the 2024 deadline.

In the last two seasons, Roslovic has been a highly effective journeyman, signing one-year deals with Carolina and Edmonton and scoring 20+ goals in each stop, but with the Hurricanes he was only a part-time player in the postseason for Rod Brind’Amour, mostly because of his fit in the Carolina team defensive scheme.

Former GM Brad Treliving was interested in bringing in Roslovic last summer, but as with many things, he was unable to consummate the deal. This season, Chayka was able to lock up the versatile forward on a two-year, $8 million deal ($4 million AAV). There is some speculation that being a teammate of Auston Matthews in the US National Team Development Program was part of the motivation for the signing.

The motivation for the signing appears to be as a stand-in for Max Domi, since Roslovic can play center and can shift to the right side as a right-hand shot (something that the Leafs are in short supply of) and play in a top-six role because of his skill set. Versatility was the primary focus of Chayka this summer, giving new head coach Jim Hiller the flexibility to move things around to find the right fit.

The additions of Paul and Sissons would seem to shore up the bottom six up the middle, likely leaving Roslovic in the position of playing with Matthews and either Matthew Knies or rookie Gavin McKenna on the top line, or on the wing on a third line.