3 Things Toronto Maple Leafs Must Do to Win Stanley Cup
The Toronto Maple Leafs have as good of a chance to win a Stanley Cup this season as any other year.
That may sound hard to comprehend but it’s the truth. If you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs roster right now, it’s very good. They should be a top-three team in their division and compete for a championship.
The most likely outcome for the 2021-22 season is that this team will make the playoffs, lose in seven games and the city of Toronto will cry themselves to sleep, but there’s always a chance that the opposite happens.
The NHL is a weird league that even the least competitive teams can find their way to a Stanley Cup Final. All you need is a hot goalie, two months of puck luck and all of sudden it looks like you’re actually going to win, even though you’re not that good of a team.
If you think I’m referring to the Montreal Canadiens you’re completely right.
Kudos to them for making the Finals, but the Leafs were clearly a better team than them. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win, but if Toronto finds themselves competing against a similar team as Montreal in the playoffs next year, I like their chances.
The Toronto Maple Leafs don’t need to win the President’s Trophy to give themselves a chance at a cup. Instead, they need to be healthy, well rested and have already gone through some adversity as the playoffs start.
However, there are three specific things that this team needs to do to better themselves next year.
As such, here are three things the Toronto Maple Leafs need to do in the regular season to help them get closer to finally winning a
playoff round
Stanley Cup next year.
No. 1: Play Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner Less
Question: “Do individual regular season goal and point totals matter?”
Answer: “No.”
Winning the Hart Trophy, Art Ross Trophy or Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy is an amazing individual accomplishment, but it doesn’t mean anything in the grand scheme of your team winning a championship.
In fact, that nightly grind of trying to win one of those awards can put extra stress and pressure on a player that it actually ends up hurting them when the playoffs start.
For instance, Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews were both top-five in TOI for forwards last year. Right beside them were Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Although McDavid and Matthews were Hart Trophy nominees and Draisaitl and Marner were point-per-game players, I’m sure they would give that up for playoff success.
On a nightly basis, Marner and Matthews were playing roughly four more minutes than Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point. Is that the reason why the Tampa Bay Lightning won a Stanley Cup? Absolutely not. However, it definitely helped in the long run, as both of those players were able to play less per night and conserve their energy for a long playoff run.
A team can potentially rely on two players for offense in the regular season, but the playoffs is different. As such, Sheldon Keefe needs to play his top two players less and play his other lines more, so they’re a more well-rounded team in the playoffs.
I know that every game and point matters in an 82-game season, but if you can’t do that by playing Matthews and Marner closer to 19-20 minutes per night, instead of 22-23 minutes, this team has a lot bigger issues.
No. 2: Give Entry Level Contract Players a Chance
The Toronto Maple Leafs missed an opportunity to win a cup while Matthews, Marner and Nylander were on their Entry Level Contract’s. However, there are still a few other players in their organization who could outperform their contract and give the Leafs a huge advantage.
It’s hard to believe but Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin only have one year left on their Entry Level Contract’s before they become Restricted Free Agent’s next year. As such, both of these young defenseman need to play as much as possible.
Sandin has shown potential in becoming a top-four defenseman, while that statement is still unclear with Liljegren. Toronto needs to give him his legitimate opportunity this year, or it feels like they never will.
Not only are Sandin and Liljegren young defenseman who could make an impact on a cheap deal, but Adam Brooks, Nick Robertson and Joey Anderson are three forwards who could be everyday NHLers next year.
All three forwards are making less than $800K, so if they’re given an opportunity to play everyday and excel, it would open up salary cap space for this team at the NHL Trade Deadline.
In order to win a Stanley Cup, you need to save every penny and you need an Entry Level Contract to play like a $5M player. As such, Toronto needs to give a big opportunity to those five players to open up as much cap space as possible for a deadline acquisition.
No. 3: Determine a No. 1 Goalie Early
Toronto’s biggest issue heading into free agency was goaltending, but they fortunately answered that when they signed Petr Mrazek.
Although the Leafs have a great tandem in Jack Campbell and Mrazek, it’s still unclear at which netminder will play more games. I’d assume that Campbell will get the nod opening night after a stellar 2020-21 campaign, but that could change quickly.
Having a goaltending competition for the number-one position is a good problem to have, but it’s definitely something this team shouldn’t want to still be having in the New Year. Instead, the Leafs should have both goalies compete for the first three months and then make a decision from there.
Even if the Leafs pick a starter, it doesn’t mean they have to play 60 games. The back-up can still play once a week and somewhat split starts, but it would at least solve the question of “who’s the starting goalie?” which is annoying narrative to have all year.
It’s also a frustrating narrative for players to address everyday, so it would make it much less stressful to know who your top goalie is.
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Having two goalies is good, but having one netminder you’re confident in is even better. As a result, let’s hope Sheldon Keefe can determine that early and set up a nice routine for both goalies for the 2021-22 season.