The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Matias Maccelli to add physicality and puck retrieval to the post-Marner lineup. Maccelli is viewed as a potential replacement for the Hyman/Bunting-style winger who digs pucks and feeds Matthews and Marner, rather than as a Marner-level playmaker. Matthew Knies remains a goal-scoring power forward, not a board warrior, creating an opening for Maccelli. Daily Faceoff projects Maccelli to start on the top line; PuckPedia favors William Nylander for Matthews' wing. Maccelli must stay healthy, prove tenacity along the boards, and display enough grit, even occasional fighting, to cement a top-line role.
The Toronto Maple Leafs traded for Matias Maccelli, hoping he could inject some much-needed punch into the team's post-Marner lineup. No one realistically believes that Maccelli could be a replacement for Marner. Unless Maccelli were a proven 100-point scorer, there's no comparison there. The idea behind landing someone like Maccelli was that he could do the job Zach Hyman and Michael Bunting once did. Hyman and Bunting acted as puck hounds, retrieving and digging along the boards, to serve Marner and Matthews.
Since Bunting left, there hasn't been anyone to truly fill that void. Matthew Knies has stuck around on that top line, but he's a goal-scoring power forward, not a puck hound. That's where Maccelli can earn a spot on Auston Matthews' wing. Maccelli can become that worker bee that digs pucks in and out of battles, setting up either Matthews or Knies. But earning that spot will take a lot of convincing.
Maccelli is slated to start the season on the top line. That's a fair assessment. After all, there's no reason to believe he couldn't do it. Despite being relatively undersized at 5'11" and 185 pounds, Maccelli can make up for his lack of size with tenacity. But PuckPedia believes the best fit for Matthews' wing is William Nylander. Yes, that would make an uber-talented top line.
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