The Toronto Maple Leafs and their Atlantic Division foes have been rather busy this off-season.
In this post, I plan on looking at all of the Atlantic Division teams. I’ll provide a recap on what they have done so far, their weaknesses/strengths heading into the 2018-19 regular season and a grade for their off-season work. Can any of them compete with the Toronto Maple Leafs after they have added John Tavares?
Before I jump into the other teams in the division, I’ll start with the Leafs.
So far this off-season, the Toronto Maple Leafs have fired Lou Lamoriello, promoted Kyle Dubas, drafted Rasmus Sandin with their first round pick, traded Matt Martin to the New York Islanders and brought home the ultimate prize, John Tavares.
In addition, the Toronto Maple Leafs have re-signed Andreas Johnsson to a one-year deal, re-signed Connor Carrick to a one-year deal and inked former Buffalo Sabres and Minnesota Wild forward, Tyler Ennis to a one-year deal.
The only RFA that the Toronto Maple Leafs need to re-sign now is William Nylander. All eyes are on the LeafsPR Twitter Handle to see when it will finally be announced.
What’s Left To Do?
Aside from Nylander, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had a solid off-season, but there are still a couple of moves that they could pull off.
Kyle Dubas still needs to determine what he wants to do with his number two goaltender. Is it time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to move Curtis McElhinney and have Garret Sparks back up Frederik Andersen?
Additionally, will Dubas go investigate the trade market and see if he can land a defenseman that can significantly upgrade the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line.
At this point in time, I would give the Toronto Maple Leafs a A-.
If Dubas adds a top four defenseman, I’d reconsider but at this point in time I’m worried about the defensive core. Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs have best trio of centremen in the NHL with Auston Matthews, Tavares and Nazem Kadri, but if there aren’t any changes to the defensive core it could be rocky season.