Comparing the Leafs and Canadiens rosters since last year’s season opener

Last season, the Toronto Maple Leafs opened their season with a 1-0 loss to the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre. Exactly one year later, the two teams are set to face off on Wednesday to kick off the season once again, this time from Scotiabank Arena.

Both these groups are coming into the year with a lot to prove. The Canadiens as a young squad who made a surprise playoff appearance they’re looking to build off this year, and the Maple Leafs, who hope to show the new, tougher look they’re bringing this season.

Ahead of Wednesday season opener, let’s take a look at how these two teams compare this year to the roster they debuted last season.

Offence

A lot will be made of how Toronto’s offensive group performs without Mitch Marner’s 102-point totals, but the Maple Leafs still boast a wealth of offensive talent. William Nylander put up the best numbers of his career last season, Auston Matthews is back at full strength, and their bottom six boasts even more size and physicality with the additions of Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua. It’ll also be a first look at Matias Maccelli on the top line, acquired from the Utah Mammoth this summer.

On the other side of the ice, Montreal carries a strong first line, but continues to have some question marks through their offensive group, including who will be their permanent second-line centre. However, they’re also coming into this year with a wild card in Ivan Demidov. Demidov is The Leafs Nation’s unanimous pick to win the Calder this year, and if he can play as dominantly as he did in the KHL, just watch out.

Defence

Toronto boasts an almost identical set of six to last season, only dropping Conor Timmins and adding Brandon Carlo at the deadline. They now benefit from a year of experience playing together, and continue to bring size over Montreal’s defensive group.

On the other hand, it’s been a year of change for the Canadiens blue line. Last season, they swapped Justin Barron for Alexandre Carrier, then David Savard retired at the end of the year. In the summer, they added 25-year-old big guy Noah Dobson from the New York Islanders. And then of course, there’s Lane Hutson. No longer a fresh-faced rookie, he’s looking to build off his Calder-winning season and come out firing this year. There’s no doubt Montreal has improved defensively, it’s just a question of how much that shows on the ice.

Goaltending

In between the pipes we’re set to see a rematch of the goaltending battle that kicked off last season, with Montreal’s Samuel Montembeault facing off against Toronto’s Anthony Stolarz. Stolarz has undoubtedly been the better goaltender over the past two seasons, but Montembeault shows flashes of brilliance as well — take his 48-save shutout to start last season as an example. Montreal’s goaltender is looking for a hot start this season to challenge for a place with Team Canada at the Winter Olympics, so this goaltending duel will be one to watch.

Cayden Primeau played backup to Montembeault to open the season last year, and now looks to be suiting up for the Leafs after being claimed on waivers this week. Filling his place as backup for Montreal will be 24-year-old Jakub Dobeš.

Coaching

Behind the bench are two very strong, but different coaches in Martin St. Louis and Craig Berube. Owing to a slew of firings, St. Louis is now one of the league’s longest-tenured coaches, entering his fifth season with this young group. Last year, he was named a finalist after powering the Canadiens to a playoff berth. Now comes the test if his development skills can transfer to leading an actually competitive group.

Meanwhile, Berube put in a lot of work in his first year with the Maple Leafs hammering in his tough style of hockey. Now, we can see how that work is starting to pay off. As he enters his second year with the team, expect the Leafs to play Berube hockey right off the bat. While it may take some time to find the winning combination with these new offensive lines, we should see a high level of buy-in from the team to the Berube style.

There’s a lot to keep an eye on as the Leafs kick off the season tomorrow. Of course, it’s worth noting that after that 1-0 loss last year, Toronto took the next three matchups against Montreal. On Wednesday, they’ll look to continue that dominance as another edition of this rivalry takes centre stage.