Tampa’s Second Stanley Cup a Good Sign for Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have built a very similarly team to the Tampa Bay Lighting.

And, when the Lightning won their second straight Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, it was a vindication of the Toronto Maple Leafs skill based philosophy.

Many NHL teams have won with skill – the Penguins, Blackhawks, Canucks and Bruins dominated the previous decade of NHL hockey with team’s built to compliment the most skilled players in the NHL,  but there are more similarities betweeno Tampa and Toronto.

The Tampa Bay victories make the Leafs happy for reasons other than a similar desire to build around skill.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Tampa Bay Lightning

The Leafs  should be happy about Tampa’s success because Tampa is a team that has successful manipulated the salary cap to their own benefit.  Whether it’s manipulating the Long-Term Injured Reserve system or getting breaks due to state-tax, the Lightning have kept together a team that should cost way more than the cap.

The Leafs may not be able to rely on state taxes, but the desire to find everything within the rules to gain an advantage can be seen by almost daily in the machinations of Kyle Dubas and Cap Guru Brandon Pridham.

Tampa proves that you can exist on the edge of the knife and still consistently improve your team.  The Leafs haven’t won, which is obviously a huge difference, but the philosophies are the same.

Tampa was supposed to get destroyed by the cap, instead they won a second Cup while retaining all their important players.  When everyone said the Leafs were too hard up against the cap, they re-signed Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen.  Then the next year people said the same thing and they went out and added T.J Brodie.

Another way the Leafs can look to Tampa is in their team-makeup and their patience.

Tampa is a team stacked with puck moving defenseman that puts skill ahead of checking, even on their lower lines.  No Matt Martins for Tampa.  When they needed tougher players, they went out and got Barclay Goodrow and Blake Coleman, two guys who can check, sure, but who are also highly skilled.

As for patience, remember it’s now 2021 and the Lightning drafted Stamkos and Hedman in 2008 and 2009.  The Lightning missed the playoffs in five of the first six years of Stamkos’ career, making it out of round one just once in the first seven years.  This is something Leafs fans who want instant results should keep in mind.

The Lightning made the Cup Final in year eight of the Stamkos Era, which was an exercise in patience that the Toronto Maple Leafs have to learn from.   Other than Pittsburgh and Chicago, who both benefited from having cheap stars at the start of the Salary Cap Era, almost no NHL superstars achieve instant success in their careers.