Assuming Marner Signs, Toronto Maple Leafs Have Nearly Perfect Roster

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had an interesting summer.

From just the perspective that the Toronto Maple Leafs have lost Gardiner and Kadri, while gaining Kerfoot and Barrie, it doesn’t seem like they have improved a lot.

But they were already pretty good, despite consecutive first round losses to the Boston Bruins (they would have won both if the best team always won).

The new Leafs team is deeper, has the majority of it’s core pieces closer to their peak seasons, and most of all, it has taken Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev out of the equation, as no other contending team had two worse players in their top four.

In fact, I would go so far as to say the new Leafs team, because of it’s depth, salary cap situation and sheer number of elite players is close to the perfect team.

Perfect Team

No team can be perfect in a salary cap league.  Every move has a corresponding cost, as there is only so much money.

But the Toronto Maple Leafs are getting close.

They won’t get the hype they deserve because they are the NY Yankees of the NHL and everyone either hates them or goes overboard in trying to not seem like they’re biased in their favor.

This will get written off as hype, and as the rantings of a lunatic on a fan site who makes all other Leafs fans look bad because he thinks his favorite team is the most awesomest ever.

And that’s fine.

But it doesn’t make me wrong.

The Toronto Maple Leafs currently have one bad contract – Cody Ceci, and it’s only for a year.  He’s also probably movable if they want to.

The Leafs a nice age-range of players ranging from Marner to Tavares, but no old or declining core pieces.

Tavares should still be in his prime, and Matthews and Marner and Nylander are all simultaneously about to enter theirs.  The Matthews, Tavares 1-2 punch will never be as strong as it will be in this upcoming season.

The Leafs are the best team in the NHL at the centre-ice position. After the top two guys (who are both arguably top ten players) they have Kerfoot (Selke possibilities) Jason Spezza, Nick Shore, Freddy Guathier and more.  It’s an excellent depth chart.

What team in the league can counter Marner-Nylander-Kapanen on the right side?

Whose top-three defenseman are better than Rielly, Barrie and Muzzin?  Who else has  a player as good as Travis Dermott not penciled into their top-three?

Once Dermott is healthy, I’ll put that top-four against anyone in the NHL’s.

Bottom pairing is largely irrelevant over the course of time, as long as you’ve got decent NHL options there, and the Leafs do.  If you play Jordan Schmaltz on your third pairing right side, he’s going to be barely decipherable (statistically) from whoever the best third-pairing right-side defenseman in the NHL ends up being.  The difference in this linesup spot between the best and worst is microscopic.

Regardless, the Leafs also have two high-ceiling rookie defenseman they can and most likely will call in at some point this season in Liljegren and Sandin.

Andersen is a rock in net.

The power-play for this team is going to be crazy when it clicks (and it was more un-lucky than anything else last year).

I haven’t even mentioned that they have about 12 solid NHL options competing for the bottom four or five forward spots.

Nylander is going to bounce back.

Mikheyev has incredible potential.

Moore could be a breakout player.

Johnson and Kapanen might have, probably do have, another level.

And a healthy Auston Matthews could win the Richard, Art Ross, and Hart Trophies.

Sure, people will make ridiculous claims about the need for toughness, and then back it up by passing on ridiculous, untrue narratives about recent Cup winners.  It won’t change the fact that skill wins hockey games, and the Leafs have more skill than anyone, and possibly more than anyone ever has in the Cap Era.

The Leafs are fast, highly skilled, they lead the NHL in number of elite players, they’ve got one of the best defenseman, one of the best goalies, a top-three player, and so, so much depth.

For a salary cap league, the Toronto Maple Leafs are close to a perfect team.