Well it’s August in Toronto and the hot, humid days are engulfing the city like Philip Danault on Auston Matthews in a series-deciding game. Surely many members of the Toronto Maple Leafs are still shoring up their golf games (insert “Leaf-losers-golfing” joke here) but training camp is just around the corner and before we know it the Air Canada Centre will be rocking with an undisclosed amount of fans with varying levels of vaccination history.
Indeed these are exciting times that we live in. So with now less than two months until the Toronto Maple Leafs open up the 2021-2022 NHL season at home against the Montreal Canadiens, the Leafs appear to have some significant question marks on a roster that has only managed to disappoint and underwhelm the past four years.
The current roster (hampered by the loss of Zach Hyman) was limited to a few modest free agent forward signings this offseason while the defense remained untouched.
The Leafs did improve at the goaltending position by bringing in Petr Mrazek but it probably wasn’t the lack of a viable second goaltender that resulted in Matthews and Marner combining for one goal in seven playoff games against Montreal.
Nevertheless, we are at the stage in the offseason that, barring any significant trade, the Toronto Maple Leafs current roster should be the one we see opening day. It certainly isn’t doom and gloom but here are three particular areas that are concerning going into 2021-2022: