Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Signing John Tavares

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed John Tavares.

Writing that sentence still doesn’t feel real. Honestly, it probably never will.

Adding Tavares to a centre group already featuring Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri is a move so good, it defies comprehension. In an instant, the Leafs’ depth at centre upgraded their status from “troubling organizational need” to “bountiful surplus”.

It’s hard to picture any team, save for the Pittsburgh Penguins, being able to match it.

With that said, holes lower in the lineup are still present. As everyone likes to mention, defence remains an area of weakness, one which Kyle Dubas is likely working his tail off to address with each passing day.

Keeping that in mind, Tavares’ homecoming posits a question. A question I think would be perfect for this week’s roundtable. This week, I tasked the EIL staff with answering the question:

Does signing John Tavares make the Leafs Cup contenders? 

The answers may shock you. Or they won’t. I can’t tell you how to feel.

Carson Trask

After signing John Tavares on July 1st, the Toronto Maple Leafs are absolutely Stanley Cup contenders.

When Mats Sundin left for Vancouver in 2008, it opened a massive hole at the centre ice position. For as much as some people wanted Tyler Bozak to be that guy, he just wasn’t it. To survive in the NHL, teams simply need to be deep down the middle of the ice.

The problem here is that acquiring elite centres is nearly impossible. Teams have two options. Either be terrible and hope the lottery balls fall their way, or hope another GM makes a mistake and trades one.

In 2016 the Leafs were incredibly lucky. They finished dead last in the league with 69 points, and the ping pong balls fell their way, allowing them to snag Auston Mathews. The following season Colorado was dead last with 48 points and picked fourth in the draft. Nazem Kadri took longer than expected but has since become the best bargain in the NHL following back to back 30 goal seasons.

Which brings us to John Tavares.

You could tell at his introductory press conference that Long Island was special to him. And, if the team wasn’t filled with so much uncertainty he probably would have re-signed well before he hit free agency. The Islanders mediocrity allowed the Leafs to sign the biggest free agent ever.

Luck and a roster of incredible young talent now leave Toronto with the best centre depth in the NHL. Either Mathews or Tavares will match up with second pairing D on any given night, leaving Kadri to feast on third pairings. The Leafs have two first lines to pair with two first pp units. That depth in the salary cap era is unheard of and will give teams matchup nightmares. Mike Babcock can just sit back and roll 3 lines without worrying about matchups at all.

There are still analysts who say the Leafs defence isn’t good enough to contend for a cup. I, for one, have been very critical of this D corps in the past. Although, the pieces are there to have a formidable.

Morgan Rielly is closing in on number 1 status. Jake Gardiner is much better than people think. Nikita Zaitsev just needs to get back to his rookie form. Not to mention, Travis Dermott has the makings of becoming a very good player. This is even truer when realizing that Timothy Liljegren sits waiting in the wings.

The Leafs forwards will have the puck all night, which will, in turn, help the defence. This team can play with anyone. This is arguably the most talented Leafs team ever, and you can bet they will be knocking on Stanley’s door for years to come.

Christopher Vassos

To answer your question, yes and no. Let me start with the ‘yes’.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had an amazing season last year by anyone’s standards. 105 points and good for 6th in the league. Along with a 2nd ranked powerplay and 11th best penalty kill, they were truly very talented.

Now does that make them a contender? It’s all relative to each person and whether or not they deem the team a contender.

Some people say that you need to have a very high chance of winning. Lets try and define this a little further. Out of the 31 teams, 16 make the playoffs. In theory, all 16 of those teams beat out the bottom 15 for a chance to contend for the Stanley Cup. Right there, technically over half the league are contenders.

What about the 8 teams who win the first round? The 4 teams who make the conference finals? What about the conference champions? Whatever definition of contender YOU use is what will determine whether YOU think the Toronto Maple Leafs are contenders.

Does this one player help out the team substantially? Yes. Even though the Maple Leafs set a franchise record for points last season, can they do better? Yes. Do I think the Toronto Maple Leafs are legitimate contenders for the Stanley Cup? Yes.

Now for the ‘No’ part. I don’t think signing John Tavares made the Toronto Maple Leafs contenders for the Stanley Cup. Because they were already good enough last season.

Anna Dua

Adding John Tavares to the Leafs roster gives them more offensive depth. Which is great. But, it does not fix the major problems preventing them from embarking on deep postseason runs.

In these past playoffs, the Leafs got eliminated by allowing four goals in the third period of a game seven against Boston. In 2017, the Leafs dynamic offence put in a valiant effort against the Washington Capitals. But, the lack of good defensive players ended that playoff run in the first round.

Before Tavares, the Leafs already had a good offense. Now they have an even better one to couple with excellent centre depth. Yet, their defence is still a glaring problem.

A large reason for Tavares’ lack of success in New York was that the Islanders’ defensive game fell short. This past season, the Islanders had 261 goals for, only slightly less than the Leafs (270), attesting to their great offensive production. They also finished the regular season with the highest goals against (293). This being arguably the largest reason as to why they did not finish in a playoff spot.

The poor defensive play of the Islanders is the reason Tavares was unable to succeed there.

If the Leafs address their defensive issues, then maybe this additional offensive depth will help them. However, Tavares alone cannot fix the issues the Leafs have faced these past few years.

And, if the Leafs ignore their defensive struggles, don’t expect Tavares to take this team further than conference finals at maximum.

Josh Tessler

The Toronto Maple Leafs are a lot better off with John Tavares on the roster.

It seems that Kyle Dubas has been watching the Pittsburgh Penguins for the last decade or so and understood that it takes three solid lines to win games. And that’s what he did. Dubas now has Auston Matthews, Tavares and Nazem Kadri running the show on Toronto’s top three lines.

Sure, the Maple Leafs don’t have a fourth line centre at this time, but that shouldn’t be a concern. Perhaps Par Lindholm plays extremely well in pre-season and earns the spot. Time will tell.

At the end of the day, the Maple Leafs are a Stanley Cup Contender for sure.

If you asked me whether they had a shot of winning, I’d have to say no. Not yet. If you look at the teams across the NHL that have gone to the Stanley Cup or the Conference Finals in recent seasons, they all had a great defensive core. I think in order for the Maple Leafs to truly be looked at the next Stanley Cup Champion, they need to upgrade their blue line.

This is the perfect time to do it. Grab an elite top 4 defenseman to pair with either Morgan Rielly or Jake Gardiner. Do that, and the Maple Leafs will be crowned champions next season.