There isn’t a team in the NHL this year that is harder to figure out than the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For every good thing you can say about the Torotno Maple Leafs current roster, there is an equally bad thing you could say about it. The Leafs have the potential to be the greatest team in the NHL, but it wouldn’t be that shocking if they missed the playoffs and their whole management group was fired.
The only thing you can say about the Leafs is that if Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are healthy, they have a very high floor. Those two could probably be added to any team in the NHL and make them at least a coin-flip to make the playoffs, and the rest of the Leafs roster isn’t that bad.
But even saying that their floor is high, the goaltending could end up sabotaging the entire season.
We just don’t know what we’re going to get from the Toronto Maple Leafs this year
Mitch Marner could finally break out and hit 100 points, get nominated for the Hart Trophy and put his playoff demons to rest. Or his contract status could be a massive distraction and he could succumb to the enormous pressure of being a hometown disappointment (which for the record, he should not be seen as but only a Cup can save his rep now).
Auston Matthews could continue to score nearly a goal per game and take that ability into the playoffs for once, or he could continue his recent trend of alternating all-time great seasons with the merely sublime. He’s about as money-in-the-bank as any player alive, but if he finds another level the Leafs could become unstoppable.
Do they finally get depth scoring, or do Knies, McMann, Cowan and Minten fail to live up to the hype? Do they end up with the worst and most expensive fourth line in hockey while being stuck without a third-line centre? Does Max Domi continue to ride shotgun with Matthews and score at a ridiculous rate, or does an incompetent organization put him back at 3C? Are the Leafs seriously going to role out Reaves and Kampf again?
The Blue-Line – Rielly could finally have the partner he’s always wished for, Chris Tanev could avoid an age-related decline, turn in a healthy five-win season and be nominated for the Norris Trophy as the Leafs cruise to the President’s Trophy.
Or the fact that they have the oldest, lowest-ceilinged blue-line in all of hockey could haunt them all season, as inuries, age-related declines and the fact that they still have two absolutely brutal puck-movers (McCabe and Benoit) take their toll.
Which brings us to the goalies. Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz could be one of the best combos in hockey at once of the cheapest combined cap hits for two goalies in all of the NHL. They could win the Jennings and one of them could win the Vezina.
Or the fact that neither of them has played over 40 games in a year for the last eight years, and that neither of them have any playoff experience could turn out to matter. I mean it’s just so hard to say!
So flip a coin cause this team could be anywhere from horrendous to amazing.