Toronto Maple Leafs: Trades Are Nice, But Not Necessary

The Toronto Maple Leafs have lost three games in a row.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, ironically, played two of their best games of the season Saturday against Vancouver and Monday against the Jets.  They lost both games.

The tendency is to jump on someone and blame them for the loss, but the fact is, the best team doesn’t always win.  The Leafs have an insane record in one-goal games which is going to correct itself over time.  The Leafs lead the NHL in PDO, which they won’t always.

The fact is, they won a couple of games against the Oilers that maybe they didn’t deserve to and things tend to balance out.  If you keep playing solid hockey, you’ll win more than you lose – that’s how it works.

Toronto Maple Leafs Still the NHL’s Top Team

Freddie Andersen obviously isn’t a top five NHL goalie, but is that really a problem? Every time he has a bad game, people, myself included, tend to lay the blame at his feet. But if there is anyone to blame for the Leafs not advancing past the first round, it isn’t him.

I forget, did Andersen enter the playoffs with Zaitsev and Hainsey in his top four?  Did he play a decrepit Patrick Marleau like it was still 2002?  Did Andersen get suspended two years in a row in the playoffs? Did he do something that led to the Blue Jackets getting the best ever goaltending in a playoff series?

No he did not.

He actually played awesome in last summer’s playoffs, but since the Blue Jackets two goalies each went on a 50 save streak and set NHL records, it kind of went unnoticed.

Andersen is the Toronto Maple Leafs goalie and he isn’t going anywhere.  He may even sign a short-term extension.  But he isn’t getting traded and the Leafs aren’t upgrading in net. Even if sometimes my emotions get the best of me and I say that they should, they shouldn’t and they won’t.  Sure, he’s no Hellebuyck or Vasilevsky, but who is?

The Toronto Maple Leafs actually have the 3rd best save percentage in the NHL at 5v5.  Tampa and Montreal are numbers one and two, respectively.  The Canadiens could win their two games in hand and then we’d be talking about three of the NHL’s top teams. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

Andersen is fine.  The Leafs are fine.  Personally, I would love to see them add a top tier player just for the fun of it, and I’d be completely fine if they wanted to upgrade over Kerfoot in the top six so they could move him back to centre.  Mikael Granlund would be a beautiful addition.

If they want to keep Kerfoot there and upgrade Engvall on line three, then Eric Staal would be a great pickup.

But they don’t really need to do anything.  They’ve got Nick Robertson and Wayne Simmonds and Alex Galchenyuk and a ton of other options on the I.R  or the Marlies right now.  If the Leafs can add a solid two-way defensive forward with a little offense, they’d be stupid not too.  But they don’t need to reinvent the wheel and change goalies. They don’t even really need to do anything, since they’re already the NHL’s best team.