The Toronto Maple Leafs Are the NHL’s Best Team
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL.
The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Vancouver Canucks last night, and while they probably did win, this article was written before the game, and subsequently all stats and standings are upto date for yesterday.
Still, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL, whatever happened last night. It’s fun to say, and I’ve been trying to say it to anyone who will listen. The Leafs actually were already the best team, it’s just that now the results are starting to line up with what has been true for a while.
Last year, the Leafs were the best team in the NHL once Sheldon Keefe took over. Sure, they finished eighth overall during his portion of the season, but that was largely because half of those games were played without Morgan Rielly and half of those games played without both Rielly and Jake Muzzin.
Throw in T.J Brodie, Joe Thornton and a year of growth to Matthews, Marner and Nylander and you have, by far, the league’s best roster.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Are the NHL’s Best Team, Regardless of the Standings
I keep finding the love the Avalanche get hilarious because their second line centre was the Leafs third line centre, and Matthews is better than MacKinnon, and frankly, their fourth best player is nowhere near William Nylander. I don’t know who the fifth best player on the Avs is, but I know he’s no Zach Hyman.
The point is, the Leafs are the NHL’s best team, and even if they hadn’t gotten such lucky results so far this season, that would still be true. This is a team currently not using Wayne Simmonds, Nick Robertson, Rasmus Sandin and Alex Galchenyuk….to say nothing of the fact that Nic Petan can’t even crack the lineup. That is five players who are almost guaranteed to play on every other team in the NHL, who can barely crack the Leafs (Simmonds is injured, but even if healthy someone really good has to come out of the lineup).
The Leafs are not only the deepest, but they’ve got the most elite players. They might not have too much cap space, but they might be able to squeeze enough juice out of the cap to add at least one more player – as they apparently want to go all-in – before the deadline.
This is the smart thing to do, because you don’t get these kinds of opportunities very often. Also, nothing they do – even if they trade both their top two prospects and their first rounder – is going to prevent them from competing every year for the immediate future anyways.
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To sum up: Tell your friends, the Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the league.