I think Kappy will work well with matthews. Heβll help carry the puck up and dish it off.
So lets say the lineup is this:
Hyman, Matthews, Kapanen
Marleau, Kadri, Marner
Johnsson, Nylander, Brown
When you look at that, the Leafs are kind of poised to take a bit of a step back this year. I don't imagine that Kapanen is going to score at a 60 point pace. I don't think Johnsson will hit 36 goals. I think Nylander will outpace Bozak in that role. Overall though, the production is probably going to be less than what the Leafs had this year.
Now you can make the argument that those three lines are better defensively, but that is a hard thing to quantify. Nylander and Johnsson are probably better defensively than JVR and Bozak, but by how much? How much better defensively is Kapanen on the wing with Matthews than Nylander, and is that drop in production warranted?