Toronto Maple Leafs Must Go For Stanley Cup Now

The Toronto Maple Leafs must go all-in and try to win a Stanley Cup this season.

It’s funny, if you write an analysis about the Toronto Maple Leafs recent play, you’ll be told you’re too negative.  But write something positive, and you’re told you’re just a ‘typical Leafs fan.’   This is the unalterable law of Leafs Nation.

So, I know I’m going to get heavily attacked just for the title of this piece alone. Doesn’t matter.  It’s the truth.  This isn’t some half baked “we’re on a six game winning streak, let’s go nuts” idea.  This isn’t some “I overrate my home team” fantasy either.

This is just cold, hard logic.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Pending UFAs

The Leafs are in a tricky position in that this is the best shot they’ll ever have at a championship, their franchise on the whole has a reputation for absolutely zero patience, and even as recently as last week, someone told me they were “still in a rebuild.”

All that is just noise, however.  The Leafs have to do whatever they can to win this year because they’ll never be a better opportunity.  The fact is that this is the last year in which Nylander, Marner and Matthews will all be cheap.  They must recognize the rarity of having three elite entry-level players while simultaneously having a core of in-their-prime veterans.

It’s a situation that, as far as I know, has never before occurred, and so they must take advantage.

Furthermore, the team has three impending unrestricted free-agents.  James van Riemsdyk couldn’t be more under-rated if he changed his name to the Tragically Hip and moved to New York.  Leo Komarov is the Leafs best defensive forward (among the best in the NHL), and Tyler Bozak (as much as I always want the Leafs to trade him so Nylander can take his job as a centre) remains one of the NHL’s better third-line pivots.

The three pending UFAs make a combined 11 million, but at least seven of that will go to William Nylander next year without improving the team at all.  It’s clear that the team won’t be able to ice as good a team a year from now as they have today, unless they get massively lucky with a couple cheap replacements.  (And, for instance, asking Josh Leivo to contribute as much as JVR does is ridiculous and not something that is within the realm of possibility.)

Gotta Go For It

The Leafs are currently icing a team where Connor Brown  has to play on the fourth line.  They could use an improvement on Bozak (at least defensively) and definitely an improvement on Moore.  They have a need for one, maybe two more defenseman.

But other than that, this is a team that is really, really good.  Left as is, and with Leivo, Kapenen and Rosen as insurance, they are stacked.

But they have all their draft picks.  They have six million (roughly) in cap space.  They have a host of tradable prospects.

If you consider that they could probably move Bozak and his salary pretty easily, they can essentially afford to add the salary of almost any single player in the league.

I’m not saying they should sell off the farm, but they are in a position where trading one or two of their prospects could net them the piece that would put them over the top.   A first rounder, Kapanen and Liljegren would probably bring them just about anything they could reasonable want.

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That’s a huge price to pay, but if it nets you a cost controlled, top-pairing defenseman in his prime, then it’d be pretty hard to complain about paying it.

The bottom line is this: the Leafs have a ton of options and they have the money and assets to add to their current team. If they keep most, if not all, of their pending UFAs and treat them like rentals, then they can realistically put together one of, if not the very best, teams in the NHL’s salary cap era.

Conclusion

It may seem counter-intuitive because the rebuilding project only just started, but it actually makes logical sense for the Leafs to try and win now.  Doing so doesn’t mean that they are throwing the future away for one shot.   I’m not saying trade the next five first rounders and every single prospect.

I’m just saying that having three elite players on entry-level deals while simultaneously having a core of in-their-prime star players is something no one has (to my knowledge) ever had in the salary cap era.

Next: Notes on the Upcoming Week

They’d be foolish not to take advantage.