How good will the Maple Leafs get with experience?

The question that neither Brian Burke or Ron Wilson can possibly answer is whether their current lineup will be contending in two or three years time. Below is the Maple Leaf lineup for tonight's game against the Flyers sorted by number of games played.

Eleven players have played fewer than 200 games. Seven haven't even played 100 games. Eleven players are 25 years of age or younger.  Thirteen players either have played fewer than 200 games or are 25 years of age or less. A guaranteed addition to this lineup is Nazem Kadri who has now played one NHL game.  That is one inexperienced lineup. 

When you consider how much improvement Kulemin has made between game 1 and game 100 or even Stalberg from game 1 to 25, you begin to realize how much different this team might look by the start of the 2011-12 season.

We can only hope.

	AGE	NHL GAMES
Kaberle	32	817
Primeau	32	772
Giguere	33	490
Sjostrom	36	420
Exelby	28	406
Phaneuf	24	401
Beauchemin	29	325
Orr	28	324
Kessel	22	289
Grabrovski	26	161
Kulemin	23	148
Schenn	20	146
Mitchell	25	133
Wallin	29	77
Gustavsson	25	41
Gunnarsson	23	40
Stalberg	24	37
Bozak	24	34
Hanson	24	33
Caputi	21	25