The Toronto Maple Leafs left-wing position is bleak now that Zach Hyman is leaving, so they need to upgrade it in free agency.

In a dream world, the Toronto Maple Leafs would sign Alexander Ovechkin and that would fix all of their problems, but they don’t have $10M-plus to sign him and he’s not leaving the Washington Capitals. So instead, the team needs to sign a cheap-ish top-six winger to play with the team’s core-four.

The reason Zach Hyman was such a perfect fit in Toronto was because of his work-ethic. He had the desire to fetch the puck and play a role that not many NHLers want to do.

Since Hyman was so good at that role, it essentially made him unaffordable for the Leafs. His work-ethic is very desirable and he’s going to be a great fit beside Connor McDavid in Edmonton. It’ll be hard to replace him, but there are a few good options in free agency who may be able to do it.

If you’re a free agent this offseason and you have a chance to play beside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner for the foreseeable future, you’d have to jump on it right? Even if you’re taking a pay-cut, the future benefits have to outweigh the extra money you could make in a different market.

Hyman turned into a 30-goal scorer playing beside those guys and any hard-working player with a little bit of skill should be able to do the same. Those two are so dynamic that it will open up so much space for that incoming left-winger to score a ton of unattested goals.

Every RFA/UFA left-winger should be chomping at the bit to play in Toronto, because it’ll make them a very wealthy man down the road, similar to what happened with Hyman.

As such, here are three free agent left-wingers who the Toronto Maple Leafs should target this offseason.