The Toronto Maple Leafs Should Trade for Bobby Ryan
The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a great start comfortably sitting in a playoff spot after the first week of the season.
However, are the Toronto Maple Leafs good enough to win a Stanley Cup this season? I think so, but you can always improve. The best teams at the start of the regular season typically look different when the playoffs start, so the Leafs roster we see today is most likely going to look different in May.
Prior to the start of the regular season, many thought that depth was a strong point for this team. Then, in a matter of days, Nick Robertson, Joe Thornton and Auston Matthews all missed time. Robertson and Thornton’s injuries were much more significant than the one game that Matthews missed, but this roster looked frightening with all three out.
Even though Toronto was able to defeat the Edmonton Oilers with all three of these players missing, it didn’t feel sustainable. The Tampa Bay Lightning were able to win a Stanley Cup without Steven Stamkos, but I don’t think the same could be said with Toronto and Matthews.
In my opinion, this is a Stanley Cup or bust type of season. The NHL has changed their rules to make it significantly more easy for the Toronto Maple Leafs to make the playoffs and for them to succeed when they get there. By not having to face their former divisional foe Boston Bruins or Tampa Bay Lightning until the Conference Finals is a huge win for the organization.
I hope the Leafs understand that they need to capitalize on this season because after the 2020-21 campaign, things could get back to normal and it may be much harder to win. Here are three moves the Toronto Maple Leafs need to make in order to win a championship.
#3. Give Mikko Lehtonen More Ice-Time
Lehtonen has only played two games this season for a grand total of 15 minutes of ice-time. The team is not utilizing the former KHL Defenseman of the Year the way many hoped he would be.
I know Zach Bogosian has improved since looking shaky in his first few games, but is Lehtonen really going to hurt this team so much defensively that they’ll lose? His skating hasn’t looked as great as I hoped it would, but he’s also only played 15 minutes of NHL hockey. That’s not enough time to show your best self.
I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Bogosian is the type of defenseman that you want on your roster during the playoffs. However, during the regular season, I don’t see why the Toronto Maple Leafs wouldn’t want to give the veteran a few nights off to rest and prepare for when the season counts.
My biggest issue with not giving Lehtonen some valuable ice-time right now is because of potential injuries to the blue-line. Last year, Morgan Rielly and Jake Muzzin missed significant time, so if something like that happened again, Lehtonen would be less prepared if he had to play a greater role on this team.
Lehtonen is 27-years-old and should be able to transition to the NHL game easier than any other rookie in the league. As a result, the team needs to give him a bigger role and more ice-time so if one of the top-four defensemen go down, he feels more comfortable about playing. The last thing you’d want to do is sit Lehtonen for weeks, then all of a sudden ask him to play 20 minutes per night and lose all of his confidence if he’s not ready for the challenge.
By playing Lehtonen more, it’ll only help the roster and give the team more flexibility. Even if he performs poorly, at least the coaching staff know now that he shouldn’t be put in the line-up come playoff time.
#2. Give Tavares and Nylander More Responsibility
I love that Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner are leading the Toronto Maple Leafs in ice-time this season, but it’s eating into the minutes of William Nylander and John Tavares.
Tavares and Nylander both have seven points on the season, which is tied-second in team scoring, despite playing six-to-eight minutes less than Marner and Matthews per night. I know that the top-duo plays on the penalty-kill and are used more on the first power-play, but I’d love to see the minutes of Tavares and Nylander increase.
I don’t think they need to play 22 minutes per night or anything like that, but it would be nice to see Tavares and Nylander get a bigger role every few games. The idea of playing Marner and Matthews 23-24 minutes nightly is too much at this point. Even in a shortened 56-game season, those extra minutes could hurt the Leafs in the long run.
The Tavares-Nylander duo is a top-line in the NHL but they have the luxury of playing behind Marner and Matthews. As a result, they can handle a bigger workload and responsibility.
When the playoffs hit, I have no issues with playing the Matthews-Marner duo 25 minutes per night, but during the regular season, there needs to be more balance. I don’t see a world where playing Nylander and Tavares more is going to hurt the team’s chances at winning so there needs to be a balance moving forward to help this team in the long-run.
#1. Trade for Bobby Ryan?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have limited cap-space but could they be movers and shakers at the NHL Trade Deadline this year? Over the past 10 years, the Leafs have been fortunate with their first-round picks, but the team is at a point where they could use them as assets moving forward.
As I’ve mentioned before, this is a Stanley Cup or bust type of season. If Toronto is near the top of the North Division by the NHL Trade Deadline, I think they should use their assets to make one more big splash to get this team over the edge.
As we’ve seen thus far, the team has depth but it kind of ends at Zach Hyman. The third-line has been used more as a shut-down trio that doesn’t have much scoring ability, and the same can be said about the fourth-line. The Leafs could use could really use one more winger to balance out the roster and make them deeper come playoff time.
When Thornton returns to the line-up, I’d like to see him continue to play with Matthews and Marner, but I’d much rather see Zach Hyman on the second-line, compared to Jimmy Vesey at this point. I don’t mind his game in short doses, but overall he’s a third or fourth line player.
This name may surprise you but one player who I think is going to garner a lot of buzz around the NHL Trade Deadline is Bobby Ryan. With four goals in five games, Ryan is red-hot for the Detroit Red Wings. Since that team is in a rebuild and Ryan is a pending UFA only making $1M, I don’t see why they wouldn’t want to flip him for a draft pick or prospect.
Blockbuster Trade Should Make Leafs Fans Thankful. dark. Next
Ryan could be able to provide extra depth for the Leafs and even play power-play minutes at times. He’s not going to be the flashy 35-goal scorer that he used to be in Anaheim, but can be another veteran in the room to help this young Leafs team get over the edge.