Toronto Maple Leafs: Most Overrated and Most Underrated

The Toronto Maple Leafs are, of course, off for the summer.

The Toronto Maple Leafs may have lost in the first round, but I think people are, in general, a little too down on the team.  Yes it’s disappointing to lose in the first round, but the positives outweigh the negatives in the current state of the franchise by miles.

The Leafs may have lost in the first round three years running, but that sounds worse than it is in reality.  In the two years, the Leafs were not expected to do anything, and they almost beat two legacy teams with a roster of 20 year-olds..

They get a pass on those two years.  Both results were positives relative to the then current roster building process.

This year was different because the Leafs had one of the best teams in the NHL.  This team lost to Boston – and that does suck – but don’t forget that Boston scored a preposterous seven power-play goals over seven games.  That just doesn’t even happen, and the fact that it did can be blamed more on luck than on any tactical shortcomings of the Toronto special teams.

Tampa led the league with a ridiculous 28% power-play, and they didn’t even come close to scoring a goal per game.

The fact is, the Toronto Maple Leafs had to play the Bruins in a coin-flip series that featured two of the NHL’s best teams, due to a poorly constructed seeding system by the NHL.  The Leafs lost a coin-flip and could have just as easily won.  Had that happened, they’d be extreme favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

They will enter next year as a favorite to do so.

The state of the franchise: couldn’t better.

So that being said, let’s play a little game. I saw this on Twitter and thought it was fun, so check it out and do your own.

https://twitter.com/NicFrost3/status/1127648301610864646

This is pretty fun, so I’ll write mine and you can yell at me, and then write your own.

Most Overrated:  Mitch Marner (great, but some people think he’s as good as Matthews).

Most Underrated:  William Nylander (media driven hate for him symbolic of power of media to make you believe anything, no matter how ridiculous. He is an elite player whose contract will prove to be team friendly). Honorable Mention: Jake Gardiner.

Best Player:  Austom Matthews (I don’t think there’s even an argument here. When healthy and playing with another elite player, he is unstoppable. Hart. Art Ross. Conn Smyth all coming up for him).

Key New Addition:  Timothy Liljegren (Possible Rielly partner).

Could Surprise:  Dymtro Timashov -( solid defense in AHL, will make the NHL. )

Takes a Leap:  Travis Dermott.  (He’s an eventual top-pairing guy.)

Prove it Year: Mike Babcock. (He’s either going to play Nylander and Matthews together, stop playing his favorites (Brown, Marleau, Hainsey, Zaitsev) too many minutes, quit with those stretch passes, and play his stars more, or he’s going to be coaching somewhere else a year from now).

See – I told you it was fun!

The Toronto Maple Leafs are somewhere close to being, or are already, the best team in the NHL. Their future is bright, their roster is great. It sucks that they aren’t still playing, but they are the team we’ve been waiting decades to watch.  I can’t wait to see what they do this summer.