Trevor Moore
Trevor Moore has made quiet the impact in his five NHL games thus far. The 23 year old has 3 points in 5 games thus far, including scoring a dazzling goal - his first of his NHL career - in a 5-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks. Trevor Moore joined the Leafs organization after signing an Entry Level Contract with the Maple Leafs in the summer of 2016, after finishing his time at the University of Denver. Coincidentally, that is similar to the last Leafs player to wear #42, Tyler Bozak, who went on to play nearly 600 games for the Leafs, before joining St Louis this summer.
However Trevor Moore is actually fairly important. Why? Well he can add confidence to the process that Kyle Dubas and Brandon Shanahan has in place, especially heading into next season, where the Leafs have Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson all to sign to likely big contracts. So what does Trevor Moore have to do with that?
Starting next season, the Maple Leafs won't be able to afford the expensive role players to surround their stars with. Connor Brown at over 2M on the cap to play 4th line minutes and the penalty kill will be a luxury Kyle Dubas and Mike Babcock will almost certainly need to part with. Kyle Dubas is likely going to have to found out a way to maneuver Patrick Marleau's 6.25M cap hit for next season, as Marleau has found himself struggling beside Matthews this season, and has largely played beside Nazem Kadri on the Leafs third line. Jake Gardiner, who makes 4.25M on the Leafs second pairing, and his next contract will likely be in the 5-6M range per season, will be someone the Leafs are forced to walk away from.
So seeing a player like Trevor Moore, who was undrafted out of University, make a name for himself through his first 3 seasons in the organization, and now impress at his chance in the NHL, can give Kyle Dubas and Mike Babcock the confidence that they can part with a Connor Brown from their fourth line, knowing a player like Trevor Moore can come in and play the same role, for around 900K instead of 2.1M.
It shows that as long as Leafs management and coaching staff don't get too attached to the role players on the team, such as Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, & Patrick Marleau, they can replace them with younger, cheaper options in the upcoming seasons, such as Trevor Moore, prospects Carl Grundstrom, Pierre Engvall, & Jeremy Bracco and another player Dubas has brought up through the ranks, Mason Marchment. Eventually replacing Jake Gardiner, Nikita Zaitsev and Ron Hainsey, with prospects like Timothy Liljegren, and Rasmus Sandin, and/or players like Colle Rosen, or Andreas Borgman.
Signings like Tyler Ennis to a league minimum deal, which Ennis made worth it in the first half of the season before breaking ankle goes towards this goal as well. Depth signings like Ennis are just as important as developing undrafted players like Moore & Marchment
Then the process restarts, and the Leafs would need to work on finding the next replacements for those players.
Kyle Dubas, and this process can allow the Toronto Maple Leafs to confidently keep Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Kasperi Kapanen, Morgan Rielly, Nazem Kadri, Andreas Johnsson, & Travis Dermott moving forward, and Trevor Moore is a big indicator of how they can manage to do so.