Toronto Maple Leafs: Andersen, Anderson, Marner

People do know the rebuild isn’t finished, right?

Going into the season the mindset was to see the younger players grow and like many young teams they are going to have their share of hiccups. Not to mention the blue line is still under construction and to fix that the Maple Leafs will need to make shrewd deals and at least two drafts to fix the problem.

However, there are those that think there is a realistic shot at the playoffs when in reality they aren’t anywhere close to that. The selection of Auston Matthews did not automatically mean the rebuild is complete. This team still needs to address the problems on the blue line if they want a crack at the playoffs.

With Matthews and company the team would be entertaining, unlike last season where it was dull and management was in tank mode. Seeing the kids wow us with their elite skill is enough to distract us from how bad the defense is. Plus aside from Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev, the defense will be really different over the next couple of seasons.

Nonetheless, these young players can’t masquerade the problems that still present themselves, so instead of getting angry about whether they make the playoffs just remember this is year two of the rebuild (don’t count Brendan Shannahan’s first year as he was just observing).

Management has found their number one center and goalie for the future, so if they are given enough time I am pretty sure they’ll fix the blue line. Patience Maple Leaf fans, you have made it this far to not believe all these issues won’t get fixed.