Toronto Maple Leafs: 1000 LBS of Baggage Hides Obvious Conclusion

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a most unusual position.

By any way in which we have to measure an NHL team, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be entering the upcoming NHL season as the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

For example:

They  finished 4th overall last season despite the 27th ranked goaltending, and we know that the more a team out-performs their goaltending, the better they are.

Here are a ton more examples of why

The Toronto Maple Leafs Are the NHL’s Best Team and Everyone Is Blind to It

For almost 200 games in the Shelden Keefe Era, they are flirting with a .700 points-percentage, which when you consider the injuries to Marner and Matthews over this time, as well as the large periods of putrid goaltending, this is incredible. (stats naturalstattrick.com).

They somehow managed to lose three straight playoff series even though they were the better team, by expected-goals, in 15 of 19 games.   They shot under 6% 5v5 in this time, neutralizing their league-best offense.

Mitch Marner, who most recently scored at a 53 goal pace and led the NHL in points from the day he returned from injury in mid-January , somehow went 18 straight playoff games without scoring a goal, despite peripheral numbers the same or similar to his regular season numbers that led to three straight seasons of flirting with 100 points.

If you ignore the statistics, and just look at the roster, the  Leafs still come out on top.

The three teams closest to them last year all lost a significant portion of their rosters, while the Leafs really only lost Jack Campbell, who was part of the 27th best goaltending duo last year, so who even cares?

The Leafs have the best player in the NHL, and reigning Hart Trophy winner in Auston Matthews.

They have a second Hart-worthy player, and a player who might be either the third or fifth best player alive, in Mitch Marner.

They have the best shut-down line in hockey and it doesn’t even use either of the two elite defensive forwards they have on their roster. They have, by far, the best defensive forwards in hockey.

They have the best offense and power-play in the NHL.

Their penalty killing was the best, and still probably is because of Marner, Giordano, Engvall, Kampf and Kerfoot.

They have three players set to make a major impact: Nick Robertson, Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin.

They have nine NHL quality NHL defenseman on their roster and easily have one of the best blue-lines in the NHL.

Their coach has one of the highest winning percentages in NHL history.

They are the deepest team in the NHL, they have the most stars, and if they wore a different logo on their chest, no one would be able to stop talking about how this team is looking unstoppable.

But it’s the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that comes with 55 years of baggage, including a failure to make it out of the first round for six straight years.  It also means that the majority of writers and analysts, and even fans, are missing what is right in front of them:

The Best Team in the NHL.