Predicting the Best Player by Position for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 5 Years

With the way the 2014-15 season has unfolded, focusing on the future is the best thing for long-suffering Toronto Maple Leafs fans to avoid prolonged depression. 

Whether it's rebuilding, renovating, overhauling or whatever associated verb you want to use, the team will certainly be changing a significant number of players in the immediate future given its ongoing lack of competitiveness.

There are some players who are difficult to move based on their contracts—think David Clarkson, Dion Phaneuf and Phil Kessel here. But it would not be surprising to see at least six or seven new players skating for the Leafs next season.

So, predicting the best players by position for this club is no easy challenge. Nevertheless, here are our predictions of who will be the best Leafs at each position in five years.

Goaltender: Jonathan Bernier

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Jonathan Bernier has loads of talent. If and when the Leafs can start defending consistently in front of him, his numbers should only improve. He has been the team's best player on countless nights since his trade from the Los Angeles Kings.

Bernier will be 31 in five more years and should be in the prime of his NHL career. He's played only 154 NHL games at the age of 26.

As long as he stays healthy, he should have at least a decade left to play the game at the highest level. Any discussion of trading him should be quashed immediately.

His career save percentage is .917, and it would not be surprising to see that jump to at least .925 in the years ahead. 

Defenceman: Morgan Rielly

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Morgan Rielly is as talented as any Toronto Maple Leafs player on the roster—and that includes Phil Kessel. Rielly has a very high hockey I.Q. He combines that with an ability to play the game at a high speed, with our without the puck on his tape.

He is one of the more gifted skaters in the league at his position. This allows him to join the rush with ease as well as recover defensively when needed. He's a prototypical defenceman in today's NHL.

The former Moose Jaw Warriors star has more than held his own through his first two seasons in the NHL. Outside of a select few such as Drew Doughty and Seth Jones, this is almost unheard of at his position, especially considering he's only 20.

One player who may give Rielly a run for this title is Stuart Percy. The 21-year-old is a blossoming defender who could become a top-pairing option for the Leafs. Rielly's ceiling is noticeably higher at this stage in their respective careers, however.

In five more seasons, Rielly will be just 25 years old and may still be two or three seasons away from peaking as a rearguard. By that time, it would not be unexpected if he was a top-10 scorer among defencemen and also a regularly discussed candidate for the Norris Trophy.

Winger: William Nylander

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William Nylander has the makings of an elite NHL scorer. The native of Calgary, Alberta, is a product of the Swedish hockey system, but the Leafs now have him toiling in the AHL with the Toronto Marlies.

Nylander is just 18 years of age, but he's developed a relatively mature game despite his youth. He's played in the Swedish Elite League as a youngster, starred at the recent World Juniors in Toronto and Montreal and now he's settling in well in the best hockey league outside of the NHL.

Nylander has four points in seven games for the Marlies, which is a small sample size. However, based on his body of work over the past two seasons, his arrow is certainly pointing upward. He had 20 points in 21 games for MODO of the Swedish Elite League in the first half of this season.

While Phil Kessel is likely to be still putting up big point totals at the NHL level in five more seasons, an educated guess is that it will be somewhere other than Toronto.

In five years, William Nylander could well be a 60-70 point winger at the tender age of 23. He's got the tools to be an offensive dynamo in the NHL.

Centre: Nazem Kadri

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Nazem Kadri seems to be the obvious choice as the team's best centre in five years. It would be very unlikely to see the Leafs slip down to one of the first two selection spots in the 2015 NHL draft. This would net them either Connor McDavid or Jack Eichel, and either of those two would easily eclipse Kadri in terms of potential.

Granted, they could win the lottery and select first, but the odds are not in their favour.

Young prospect Frederik Gauthier doesn't project as a top-line centre, and while fellow junior star Carter Verhaeghe has upside, he's a much bigger stretch than Kadri to develop into the team's best centre in five years.

A possible candidate for the title in five years would be Peter Holland, although Kadri has more offensive upside than the more physical Holland.

Kadri is an improving skater with great agility and lateral movement. He's competitive and has elite on-ice vision. He's the best bet to be the Leafs' top centre in 2020.

All stats are from hockeyDB.com unless noted otherwise.