Roundtable: Should Toronto Maple Leafs Management Trade Or Fire Someone?

Michael Mazzei

To put it mildly, the start to the 2019-20 season has been a sluggish one for the Toronto Maple Leafs. They have lost a number of winnable games, have seen old habits continue to creep in, and are losing ground in the standings.

Saying this is concerning for a team that has aspirations of doing something special is an understatement. Yet, now is not the time to make a decision to make a trade or fire someone either on the bench or in the front office.

Let’s face it: slow starts suck. I’m sure the Leafs roster will agree with that statement and want to right the ship as soon as possible. This is why I think more favourable results will be coming for this team sooner rather than later, meaning they will regress back to a level we can expect.

Given that the team’s PDO is uncharacteristically low, both goaltenders have had slow starts, and an overwhelming number of changes to the roster, it should be expected that there was going to be setbacks at the beginning of the year. These are professional athletes who are paid millions of dollars to play this sport; I’m confident that they will figure things out in due time.

If, however, things do not improve by the end of November and the Leafs are still struggling to gain traction, then would be a more appropriate time to make a drastic change such as a trade or firing. The worst thing they can do is make a knee-jerk decision and make such a move too prematurely.

In the meantime, Toronto should just ride it out and let the next few weeks dictate their thinking going forward. Until then, all we as fans can do is hope for things to progress in the right direction for this team as the season proceeds.