Toronto Maple Leafs: Bad Management & Other Weaknesses

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a team on the rise.

If you’re a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and are anything but optimistic at this point, you need to step back and do some self-reflection. If you can’t get on board with a team where Mitch Marner might be the third best young player, you’re just too negative.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t issues at hand.

Here’s the Leafs three main Achilles’s Heels going into this season.

1. Team Defense

The Toronto Maple Leafs were the second-worst 5v5 team in the NHL last year for allowing shots. Only the Sabres were worse. The Leafs took a lot of shots, and were over 50% possession, but regardless, they allowed too many shots.

It’s the one spot where the team can easily improve, but it’s also the biggest cause for concern. The Defense lacks a #1 super-star. It’s filled with players who can move the puck, but other than Gardiner, none of the Leafs D is an above average shot-suppressor.

Then there are the forwards. As fun as they are to watch, defense is not their strong suit. Other than Komarov and Kapanen, no Leafs wingers can be said to be above average defensive players. Kadri played the role of shut-down centre, but he’s not exactly Mikko Koivu.

The Leafs blew a lot of leads last year, and their team defense needs to improve if they want make a run at the Cup this year. One reason I don’t think you’ll see Tyler Bozak back with the team in October is because of how bad he is defensively.

2. Back-Up Goalie

In a salary cap league, you can’t always spend big on a back-up goalie. That said, the Toronto Maple Leafs could have done better than to re-sign Curtis MacElhinney.

It’s not that he’s terrible, it’s just that you’d prefer to have a back-up you can be comfortable with if your starter goes down for a long period of time.

The Leafs have zero NHL ready minor league goalies and a below average NHL back-up. Should Andersen go down, a trade is now necessary and the Leafs will have no leverage and thus overpay.

This is not something I will spend a lot of time being worried about, since if your starter goes down, your season is basically hanging from a thread regardless, but I’d rather they have gotten someone with at least a little bit of a ceiling to back up Andersen.

3. Bad Roster Choices

Maybe I’m the only one saying this, but I don’t really like the signings the Leafs made this summer. I think with Moore and Marleau they went with age and experience over skill, and that’s never a smart play.

More from Editor In Leaf

I don’t think Dominic Moore is very good, and he’s certainly a downgrade on Brian Boyle. A line with Martin and Moore just shouldn’t be employed in 2017. I really wish the Leafs looked more like the progressive team they appeared to be prior to Lou Lamoriello coming aboard.

A scoring fourth line of Josh Leivo, Adam Brooks and Eric Fehr is something I’d like to see. But you know that is never happening.

Furthermore, if the team keeps Nylander at the wing, despite being overloaded at that position, despite him being superior to Bozak in every way (including defensively) and having salary cap issues, I think I’d lose 100% of my faith in this management group – that’s how dumb of an idea I think this is.

Where does Kapanen play? Does Babcock ever give Leivo a chance? Are they ever going to pair Rieilly and Gardiner? Do we need to see another 80 games of Nikita Zaitsaiv over-matched against first-lines?

Was I the only one upset that they let Brandon Leipsic go, or didn’t attempt to keep Seth Griffith? I know fans are 100% behind Lamoriello and the Leafs management group, but I personally am counting the days until Lamoriello retires and takes his dumb long-hair rule with him.

Next: Lou's Antiquated Rules are a Joke

The Toronto Maple Leafs were blessed with some good draft luck over the past five years, I’d like the team’s management to show their worthy of it. So far, I think it’s extremely debatable that they are.

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