Grading Each Toronto Maple Leafs Season From the Last Decade

With the decade coming to an end, it was filled with ups and downs with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

We have seen many come and go, as well as stay and thrive from the 2010-11 season until present time the 2019-20 season. I’ll be going over each season of the Toronto Maple Leafs, reviewing them as well as giving each season a grade.

From the 2010-11 season until present time there is a lot to talk about and go over.

Ranging from disappointing seasons, to drafting superstars, to upsets, I will be going over it all.

Feel free to leave a grade for each season, as well with your thoughts.

Toronto Maple Leafs 2010-11 Season

Record: 37-34-11 – 85 points (Finished 4th in Northeast Division and 10th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: B-

Review: This 2010-11 Toronto Maple Leafs team fell short of making the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs by 8 points, with a team made up with several young NHL players and even a hand full of some veteran players they didn’t do a half bad job at all.

Finishing second last in the division isn’t ideal but second last in their division got them 10th in the East.

Ron Wilson was the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs at the time, his time in Toronto only lasted from 2009-2012. He wasn’t the greatest of coaches but we all got through the tough couple of years of Ron Wilson.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a 20 year old Nazem Kadri on their team who they had just drafted in the 2009 NHL entry draft, a 23 year old Phil Kessel who they had traded 3 draft picks for (which 2 out of the 3 turned out to be Tyler Seguin, and Dougie Hamilton) as well as Joffery Lupul in his prime via trade with the Anaheim Ducks sending not just Lupul over,but prospect Jake Gardiner as well.

Some more young players for the Toronto Maple Leafs on this team were free agent signing Tyler Bozak who was in his second season as a Maple Leaf, a 22 year old James Reimer, and last and certainly not least… a 25 year old Dion Phaneuf who was named captain of the team that year.

Nonetheless this Toronto Maple Leafs team had some key pieces for them to build around in coming years, a few young stars who could have bright futures if used and coached properly, and if built around them the right way. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2011-12 Season

Record: 35-37-10 – 80 points (Finished 4th in the North

east Division and 13th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: C-

Review: In the 2011-12 season the Toronto Maple Leafs still had a number of young players on their roster, the likes of Phil Kessel, Nazem Kadri, Luke Schenn, Cody Franson, Matt Frattin, and they also played newly acquired Jake Gardiner 75 games that year. He was traded alongside Lupul to the Toronto Maple Leafs  for Francois Beauchemin.

The Toronto Maple Leafs saw Kessel hit 82 points on the season in 82 games in just his third season with the team (second full 82 game season) as well as Jake Gardiner , who hit 30 points in his rookie year and continued to have a great career with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On the other hand the Toronto Maple Leafs  started the season well and slowly drop below .500 by January.

The team did just said and head coach Ron Wilson eventually got fired and he got replaced by Randy Carlyle with only 18 games left on the season.

The reason this season gets a C-, is because the drop in points from the year before (85 to 80) the firing of the coach is a big one too obviously, showing that the team was not going in the right direction with some of the key pieces that they had. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2012-13 Season (half season lockout)

Record: 26-17-5 – 57 points (Finished 3rd in the Northeast Division and 5th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: B+

Review: Ah yes, the 2012-13 season which showed a lockout for half of the NHL season. Teams only playing 48 games instead of the standard 82, the season starting mid January and went on until the end of April.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were known at the time to play a fairly well first half of the season and then slowly drop below .500 and miss the playoffs in the second half of the season.

Well luckily for them and Toronto Maple Leaf fans, they only played 48 games and ended up clinching a playoff spot!

This year saw multiple young players on the team shine bright and half really good years, Phil Kessel was back at it again being over a point per game player with 52 points in 48 games, a 22 year old Nazem Kadri finished with 44 points in 48 games.

Kadri had a tremendous year in his first full NHL season, (even though it was half a season) having only playing 51 games in the previous three seasons.

Toronto went ahead in the off-season as well before the 2012-13 season started and went and traded D Luke Schenn to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for F James van Riemsdyk, and well we all know how that trade turned out for both teams.

Fast forward to the 2013 NHL playoffs the Toronto Maple Leafs are in the postseason for the first time since the 2003-04 season! You know Maple Leaf fans were excited, and ready for some playoff hockey.

Unfortunately we all know how the 2013 playoffs ended… and we do not talk about it, but we can talk about how happy we were for them to make playoffs for the first time in almost 10 years. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2013-14 Season

Record: 38-36-8 – 84 points (Finished 6th in the Atlantic Division and 12th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: C+

Review: After a full year with head coach Randy Carlyle, the Toronto Maple Leafs finally made the NHL playoffs although it was only a half season fans were beyond excited about it.

Fast forward a season later to this season (the 2013-14 season) the Maple Leafs fell short of the playoffs yet again (playing a full season) with that said, there was also a change in the divisions.

The six divisions we were used to (Northeast, Southeast, Atlantic, Northwest, Central, and Pacific) were now changed to four divisions (Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific) with the Toronto Maple Leafs moving from the Northeast Division to the Atlantic alongside seven other teams.

Some key players from this season that stood out were the fan favorites and everybody should know, you know Phil “The Thrill” Kessel as usual.

He put up another 80 point season in 82 games. Newly acquired forward James van Riemsdyk finally played a full 82 game season with the Toronto Maple Leafs after only playing the half season the year prior. JVR put up 30 goals and 31 assists for 61 points.

Another new member of the Toronto Maple Leafs was goaltender Johnathan Bernier, who, in his first year in the organization put up a great record for a team who finished 12th In the conference.

You may look at the goals against and the 19 losses but this Maple Leafs team had 36 losses as well, and Bernier’s save percentage was at an amazing .922 to finish the season. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2014-15 Season

Record: 30-44-8 – 68  points (Finished 7th in the Atlantic Division and 15th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: D

Review: This is where the Toronto Maple Leafs took a turn for the worst, but it only lasted two years so it was not that bad.  The team finished second last in their division, their conference, and fourth last in the whole league, but the winner of the upcoming NHL draft would select Connor McDavid, which the Oilers did.

The Toronto Maple Leafs really didn’t have much going for them this season nor did they in the next as well, so I’ll quickly give a small summary of what went down.

The team stunk… nothing else to say, the fired Randy Carlyle mid way through the season after him being there for about 3 and a half to 4 years. He ended coaching 40 games with a record of 21-16-3 and was replaced by intern head coach Peter Horachek who coached the remaining 42 games and ended up with a horrific record of 9-28-5.

Long story short like I said the Toronto Maple Leafs finished fourth last in the league and did not win the draft lottery but they did end up with the 4th overall pick, and with that pick the Maple Leafs selected the man the myth the Mountain Dew lover, Mitch Marner.

Some key players from this horrific year were the usuals, Phil Kessel, James van Riemsdyk, and Tyler Bozak, yet they all had down years which was expected with an overall record like this. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2016-17 Season

Record: 40-27-15 – 95 points (Finished 4th in the Atlantic Division {2nd Wild Card Spot} and 8th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: A-

Review: Wow! What a season this was, this season was so much fun to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan that’s for sure. The Toronto Maple Leafs as you can see and probably remember, they finally made the playoffs in a full NHL season for the first time since the 2003-04 season.

The reason why I graded this season an A- is simply because this team was made up of countless rookies making their NHL debut as well as some veteran players surrounding them, and they did not disappoint that is for sure. They had no expectations entering the 2016-17 season after finishing dead last in the league the season prior. No one was thinking they’d make playoffs, they just wanted the Toronto Maple Leafs to somewhat play like they’re trying and maybe finish close to making the playoffs, but this team surpassed expectations that’s for sure.

40 win season, 95 points, countless rookies playing amazing in their rookie year. Remember Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander? They had a phenomenal rookie campaign, let’s go over those 3 players stats from that year.

Auston Matthews – 40G 29A 69 PTS

Mitch Marner – 19G 42A 61 PTS

William Nylander – 22G 39A 61 PTS

With them making the playoffs they were matched up with the Presidents Trophy winner Washington Capitals… sounds scary right, well I was scared. 118 point Capitals team who have been in the playoffs multiple times playing against a 95 point Maple Leaf team filled with rookies, who no one expected them to make playoffs.

One thing I will say is… WOW AGAIN, they pushed the Capitals to 6 games but ultimately came up short in the first round, but this was something they could build from having the experience of doing so well in the season, making playoffs, pushing the Capitals to 6 games as well. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2017-18 Season

Record: 49-26-7 – 105 points (Finished 3rd in the Atlantic Division and 4th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: A

Review: Coming off an outstanding 2016-17 season filled with a bunch of rookies and some veterans, the next season did not disappoint. They added 10 more points to their total points from last season (95 to 105 points) they also broke countless records that year… such as “most points” (105) “most wins” (49) “most home wins” (29) as well as “longest home winning streak” (13)

This season just like the year prior was really fun, we got to see the growth of all the rookies from the year before, and the Toronto Maple Leafs also brought in a couple of players for the new season, such as Patrick Marleau and Dominic Moore, as well as called up and played youngsters Andreas Johnsson, and Kasperi Kapanen during the season to give them a look in the big leagues.

This season also saw players such as Marner who reached a career high in points in just year 2, Kadri and JVR both hitting 30 goals on the season alongside Matthews, and cant forget Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner both hitting the 50 point mark as D men.

Fast forward to the playoffs where the Toronto Maple Leaf clinch for the second year in a row… but wait… they play the Boston Bruins again.

Do we all remember 2013? Right we don’t talk about that though, but when the Maple Leafs were matched up against the Bruins I thought we had a chance that year, but ultimately just fell short in the playoffs back to back years and fell short to the Bruins in game 7 inside TD Garden just like the 2013 playoffs.

But at this point they now have 2 back to back years of playoff experience and can use that going forward. (Stats from hockey-reference.com)

Toronto Maple Leafs 2018-19 Season

Record: 46-28-8 – 100 points (Finished 3rd in the Atlantic Division and 5th in the Eastern Conference)

Grade: B+

Review: This season should be fresh in everyone’s mind, the 2018-19 NHL season. But before I start talking about the season, let’s talk about the biggest free agent signing during the 2018 NHL free agency… the Toronto Maple Leafs sign hometown boy John Tavares to a 7 year 77 million dollar deal bringing him onto this offensive powerhouse team with the likes of… Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander (who wasn’t signed to a contract yet) Morgan Rielly, etc.

The William Nylander contract saga, yes we all remember that. Long story short if you somehow forget he held out for 2 months during the season without a contract and ended up signing a 6 year extension with the team with a AAV of 6.9 million, and yes William is worth that contract I don’t care.

Anyways this season was something else, after hitting 95 points in the 2016-17 season, and then 105 points in the 2017-18 season, I with a lot of others were probably expecting an even better season or at least maybe 105 points again.

Well that didn’t happen, the Toronto Maple Leafs ended the season with 100 points flat and finished 3rd in their division where they ended up playing the Bruins again.

Yes 100 points is not bad at all, but they were hit with injuries during the season and especially late in the season which led them to lose a number of games down the stretch after starting the season 20-9-1 through their first 30 games. That is 41 points to be exact and that is a 112 point pace, and it kept increasing throughout the season yet we know they only hit 100 points.

But other than that, this season was special for many players, breaking career highs in goals, assists, points etc for numerous players. Some players who had career years were…

John Tavares – 47G 41A 88 PTS

Mitch Marner – 26G 68A 94 PTS

Auston Matthews – 37G 36A 73 PTS

Morgan Rielly – 20G 52A 72 PTS

and even Zach Hyman had a stellar year playing alongside Marner and Tavares putting up 21G & 20A for 41 PTS total.

Yet here comes the playoffs and like I said above, they are playing the Boston Bruins for the second time in back to back years and the third time in 6 years. We all know how this turned out another game 7 loss in TD Garden… what else is new, but the difference between this series compared to 2013 and 2018 was that the Toronto Maple Leafs had 3 different series lead and ultimately couldn’t close the series in game 6 or game 7 which was sad to us Leaf fans.

Mike Babcock’s sit was getting hot after getting out of the first round 3 years in a row as the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs and also getting out in the first round  5 out of the last 6 years dating back to his years in Detroit.

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Toronto Maple Leafs 2019-20 Season (First Half)

Now present time, the 2019-20 NHL season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs did not start the season right at all, we saw the team make big moves in the offseason by trading Kadri to Colorado and bringing In Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot.

They also made some smart moves to get out of several long term contracts, like Nikita Zaitsev and Patrick Marleau. Trading away Patrick Marleau’s contract to Carolina allowed them to make space to sign free agent Ilya Mikheyev, as well as RFAs Kapanen and Johnsson.

We also saw a couple of free agents move on from Toronto such as, Jake Gardiner, Ron Hainsey, and Tyler Ennis.

Fast forward to 23 games in and Mike Babcock is fired and replaced by Toronto Marlies head coach who is close with Kyle Dubas, Sheldon Keefe.

Since then the Toronto Maple Leafs are the hottest team in the NHL and are currently on an eight game point streak.

Grade pending.