The Toronto Maple Leafs are in third place in the Atlantic division.
But, given all that has happened this year, the Toronto Maple Leafs could reasonably consider themselves the equal of any team ahead of them, and as such could reasonably make the argument that this is the best chance they’ll ever have to win.
But is it?
And should they?
Going All-In
The Toronto Maple Leafs may be in third place, but if you factor in the Nylander holdout, his subsequent 20 or so games getting back up to speed, the Auston Matthews and Freddie Andersen injuries, the weird twin goal scoring slumps of Matthews and Nazem Kadri, plus the inexplicable power-play outage that went on for half a season, then I think you could make the argument that the Leafs are better than their record.
Keep in mind also that they only recently added Jake Muzzin, and that his impact has not fully been felt yet.
So with reasons to believe the Leafs are better then their record, and the pesky fact that that Marner and Matthews will never be cheaper, and the Tavares/Matthews combo will never be better, it looks like a slam dunk for the Leafs to go all in.
So what would that look like exactly?
The Leafs don’t want to ruin their farm system and next year’s salary cap just for one kick at the can, but I believe they can still max out this year’s team without doing that.
The first move would be to find some way to clear cap space. Whether it’s deciding to push the bonus money owed Matthews and Marner to next year, paying someone to take Nathan Horton, or something even more creative like finding a new home for Patrick Marleau, Connor Brown, Zach Hyman or Ron Hainsey, the Leafs will have to make this a priority if they are to add this year.
The next move would be to put their best assets in play. The conventional wisdom is that with their first round pick already spent, the Leafs won’t blow their brains out on another trade. If, however, they decide that this is their year, they could look at trading TImothy Liljegren or their 2020 first round pick.
If they can land someone with term, it’s not a terrible idea to move on from one of their top prospects, and a draft pick that’s almost two years out and bound to be fairly low, won’t help them for about five years anyway.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs do decide that this is their best chance to win – and I am convinced that this is a forgone conclusion because of how much Marner and Matthews will cost next year – then they will go all-in and the upcoming week will be very interesting indeed.