Toronto Maple Leafs: The Rarely Mentioned Factor in Cup Quest

The Toronto Maple Leafs should enter the next NHL season as a Stanley Cup Favorite.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will look to put one of the strangest hockey seasons in recent memory behind them and focus on winning their first Stanley Cup in 50 + years when the 2020-21 season finally gets under way.  Do so so, they’ve got (at least on paper) the best roster in the NHL.

Though we’d be through the first month of the season under normal circumstances, there is still no word when the NHL will resume operations.  Whenever it does, the Leafs will ice one of the deepest, most talented, fastest, and youngest teams in the NHL.

Their formerly weak blue-line now features three top pairing players and two of the best non-NHL defenseman in the world (Lehtonen, Sandin) and the Leafs will be looking to transition from up-and-comer to Cup winners.

In order to do so, one thing must occur.  One thing that is far and away the most important factor, and which hardly anyone ever talks about.

Their best players must enter their primes. As good as the Leafs are right now, their team will automatically improve just due to the age of their players and the passage of time.

Matthews, Nylander, and Marner

Perhaps the craziest thing about the Leafs already excellent roster is how their three best players are not even in their primes yet.

Auston Matthews is the NHL’s best goal scorer, and he deserved more Hart Trophy consideration than he got last season.

Mitch Marner already has a 93 point seasons, and should have no problem living up to his contract. 

William Nylander was on pace to flirt with 40 goals, while leading the NHL in net-front goals, as well as posting some of the best on-ice statistics in the league and being one of the NHL’s leading scoring chance creators and puck transition players.  He arguably has the NHL’s second best contract, which given the partisan-like (and totally unwarranted) criticism he received so far in his career, can best be described as “hilarious.”

All three are already among the NHL’s best players.

All three stand to get even better than they are today.

Matthews has already become a dominant two-way centre after making great strides in his defensive game last year.  His next step is to try and overtake Connor McDavid for the title of league’s best player.  Matthews is significantly better at this point than either Nathan MacKinnon or Leon Draisaitl where two years ago.

Should he continue, as expected, to develop and improve, it’s crazy to think how good he’ll be.  Where does the player who scored four goals in his first NHL game plateau?  It’s anyone’s guess, but it hasn’t happened yet.

What does Nylander do for an encore?  If paired with Matthews he’s a threat to lead the NHL in assists, and who knows, he could challenge for a scoring title.  What’s his ceiling, 40 goals? 50?  We just know we haven’t seen it yet.

And as for Mitch Marner, its the exact same thing as the other two – we don’t know how good he’ll be, just that he isn’t there yet.

Now, this is a team that should have finished near the top of the standings if not for some fluky bad goaltending and unlucky results, and their three best players all stand to get significantly better.

That’s good news for the Toronto Maple Leafs, bad news for every other team.