The Toronto Maple Leafs season may be over but it doesn’t mean the team needs another rebuild.
Sure, the Toronto Maple Leafs season was a disappointment but there are plenty of positives to take from it.
If the qualifying round was a Best-of-Seven against the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Leafs most likely would have won the series. They outplayed the Blue Jackets but were snake-bitten so many times.
The Leafs had a number of scoring opportunities that either hit the post or were miraculously saved by Columbus. Either way, at the end of the day, the team lost and Leafs fans will have to wait at least one more year to lift the Stanley Cup.
Despite another year of heartbreak, the Leafs roster should stay fairly intact heading into the 2020-21 season.
On the current roster, there are eight pending Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) or Restricted Free Agents (RFA) and it wouldn’t be shocking if five of them returned.
However, with Alexander Barabanov, Mikko Lehtonen and Nick Robertson all scheduled to be on the Leafs opening night roster next year, there will be plenty of competition at training camp to decide who starts.
Here are the top three players the Toronto Maple Leafs must resign.