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.