The Toronto Maple Leafs have been looking for ways to make a deep playoff run for the past several seasons as they have consistently failed to make it past the first or second round. With the Maple Leafs being eliminated in the first round by the Boston Bruins last season and yet again failing to meet expectations, speculation began flying immediately that they could be looking to make some massive changes that would shock the entire locker room. With the “Core Four” of Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, and Mitch Marner all having blame pointed at them for the lack of team success, the Maple Leafs have seemingly decided against making any big moves or breaking them up.
According to a recent segment on Sportscenter, there is a growing belief that the Maple Leafs will be running it back with Marner returning to the team and the Maple Leafs not making any major changes to send a message to the team. While they have the depth in their lineup to be able to make the playoffs again, it’s clear something isn’t working when it comes to actually playing during the postseason. It would have been nice to see a big trade get made to change things up, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be happening this offseason.
Whenever the Maple Leafs don’t make it deep into the playoffs, fans are always quick to find someone to blame. It’s easy to place blame on Matthews and Marner since they couldn’t find any consistent offensive production during the postseason, but it’s also easy to blame their defensive depth who couldn’t shut down the Boston Bruins when it mattered the most. At the end of the day, it was a combination of many things the team did wrong that led to them being eliminated from the postseason, and the blame shouldn’t solely be placed on one or two players. However, a massive change could have benefited the team heading into a new campaign.
Maple Leafs Should Make Major Change
As mentioned earlier, the Maple Leafs don’t play well when it comes to performing in the postseason. They are a fantastic regular-season team, and fans are often optimistic about their ability to dominate before the playoffs come around. If they choose to keep their roster similar to what it looked like last season, they aren’t going to find any success. They don’t have a lineup of players who can be trusted to bring a Stanley Cup back to Toronto.
Some fans will argue the Maple Leafs shouldn’t make a trade just for the sake of doing something. However, this scenario seems warranted. They have had no success with this current group and it seems like they always crumble under the pressure. They made a smart change when they relieved Sheldon Keefe of his duties as head coach, but hiring Craig Berube as the new bench boss doesn’t move the needle as much as a big trade would have. Signing Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson helps in a big way defensively, but those two still don’t move the needle enough to consider them contenders.
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At the end of the day, the Maple Leafs seem to be running it back with the same group they had last season. Whether or not that turns out to be the right decision will depend on how well the team performs when it comes to the postseason. The Maple Leafs are clear locks to make the playoffs and have yet another shot at redemption, but this team may not have what it takes to finally get over the hump and push for their first Stanley Cup since 1967.
