Toronto Maple Leafs: Best Team Offensively In The NHL
The Toronto Maple Leafs have the best team offensively in the NHL and it is not even close.
I know what you are thinking, “another delusional Toronto Maple Leafs fan”, well, you are right! I am delusional because I have been blind to how good this team actually is. It has just registered to me that this team is the best team the Leafs have had in their existence.
Think about it…
You have one of the best snipers in the NHL in Auston Matthews. One of the best playmakers in Mitch Marner. You have an elite playmaker in William Nylander playing with Matthews. You have an elite sniper in John Tavares playing with Mitch Marner. But, do you know what else this team can do? Reverse their roles.
Matthews is an elite playmaker, while Nylander has an elite shot. Marner has an elite shot, while Tavares is an elite playmaker.
Most teams would do anything to have an elite duo on their offense and only a handful of teams have two superstars that they can play together on a nightly basis.
32.26% of NHL teams have at least two superstars in their offensive lines. 19.35% of NHL teams have at least three superstars in their offensive lines. 6.45% of NHL teams have at least four superstars in their offensive lines.
List Of Teams With A Superstar Duo
Colorado Avalanche – Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen
Dallas Stars – Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin
Edmonton Oilers – Connor McDavid, Leon Draisatl
Tampa Bay Lightning – Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov
List Of Teams With A Superstar Trio
Boston Bruins – Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, David Patsrnak
Philadelphia Flyers – Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, Sean Couturier
Pittsburgh Penguins – Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Phil Kessel
Washington Capitals – Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom
List Of Teams With A Superstar Quartet
Toronto Maple Leafs – Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, William Nylander
Winnipeg Jets – Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Patrik Laine, Nikolaj Ehlers
The Toronto Maple Leafs and Jets have something that the rest of the league does not have, a quartet of forward superstars. So how are the Leafs better than the Jets? Depth. The next five best forwards on the Jets are Kyle Connor, Bryan Little, Matthie Perrault, and Andrew Copp. The next five best forwards on the Leafs are Nazem Kadri, Patrik Marleau, Zach Hyman, Connor Brown and Kasperi Kapanen.
I would say the Leafs have the upper hand there. While Connor and Little are both good players, Kadri is one of the best third line centres in the league and Marleau has a resume that is better than any other player mentioned. Hyman and Brown are PK specialists, while Kapanen could be a top six forward in the next couple of years. Perrault is a great defensive forward, while Copp is a PK specialist.
Both team are very equal there, but lets dive a little deeper. The Leafs still have Andrea Johnsson, who could be a dark horse this season. They also added on Tyler Ennis, who has scored 20 goals three times in his career and had 40 points three times as well. While it is not expected of him to do that again, it is always a possibility.
Toronto also have Josh Leivo in their press box and Carl Grundstrom, Jeremy Bracco, Trevor Moore, Pierre Engvall and more in the AHL. With those players added I think the Leafs have the best depth between the two teams.
List Of Teams With Two 50+ Point Defenseman
Minnesota Wild – Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba
Nashville Predators – P.K. Subban, Roman Josi
Toronto Maple Leafs – Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner
As much as Leafs fan love to hate on Gardiner, he is one of the best defenseman in the NHL. He is a victim of what many fans call the “eye test”, but I hate using that because with the eye test, a player’s cons stand out way more than their pros do.
With the eye test, when you hate a player, you look for every mistake you make on the ice and disregard everything they do right. Look at Brad Marchand for example, I think he is a garbage player that I would never want on my team and yet, he had 85 points in 68 games. Those are superstar numbers, but I focus on everything he does bad, like licking people’s faces (seriously, what is wrong with that guy?).
If you watched Gardiner play without the hate goggles in front of your eyes, you will see one of the smoothest skaters in the NHL, somebody who can make a pass stick to stick from his own zone to the other team’s blue line. Does he make mistakes? Sure, but his pros outweigh his cons by a large margin. There are only 19 50+ point defenseman and the Leafs have two of them.
Conclusion
Believe me or not, the Toronto Maple Leafs do have the best offensive team in the NHL, honestly, they could have the best team as a whole. They have so much depth that players across all positions are stuck in the minors even though they are NHL ready.
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Also, imagine this, being stuck in your own zone, exhausted because Matthews and Nylander are cycling the puck, you look down for a second and look back up to see Tavares and Marner entering the zone, then you have Kadri, Kapanen and Johnsson coming in after them.
This team is good, they have a quartet of superstar forwards, a duo of 50+ point defenseman and more depth than any other team. This is our year and if not, we have at least another six solid chances.