Toronto Maple Leafs Are Hoping Low-Key Summer Pays Off

It’s hard to describe Kyle Dubas (and by extension the Toronto Maple Leafs) summer as anything but middle of the road; safe and somewhat boring.

The  Toronto Maple Leafs finished 4th overall, then did their usual retooling of the bottom half of their roster, changed goalies for the second straight year, and other than that, it was fairly uneventful, as the team is, once again, “running it back” with the same core.

Some members of the fanbase, though, long or big blockbuster deals; the sort that see stars moved and perhaps replaced by other bonafide superstars.

The team, however,  has decided that building around Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander continues to be the correct course of action.

This is probably the correct choice, though at this point, who knows?

Toronto Maple Leafs Should Be At Least As Good As Last Year

When you look at the departures and arrivals on the roster; the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t seen a game changer walk for free (ala Johnny Gaudreau) nor have they had to give away good players up essentially for free (ala Vegas and Max Pacioretty).

There have definitely been departures that were useful players; the likes of Jack Campbell and Ilya Mikheyev, but the Leafs strategy from the beginning has been to let mid-range players walk when they want to be paid more than a team-friendly deal.

This year the Leafs have replaced the likes of Mikheyev, Kase and Spezza with  Calle Jarnkrok and potentially any one of Nicolas Aube-Kubel, Adam Gaudette, Denis Malgin or recent PTO signing, Zach Aston-Reese. Any one of those guys could ultimately step up and fill Mikheyev’s skates.

Likewise, in making moves on two brand-new goaltenders in Matt Murray and Ilya Samsonov, the Toronto Maple Leafs are hedging their bets that at least one signing pays off.

Certainly, there have been losses this summer, but in playing a safe game, Kyle Dubas may end up winning out. The roster has a lot of players competing for few jobs, and competition has been known to spur teams on to success.

Also, with a greater number of players getting opportunities, the odds of one breaking out like Michael Bunting did last year also increase, while another benefit of this strategy is that it’s easier for a rookie to steal a veteran’s job if the veteran isn’t being paid too much to sit on the bench.  Any rookies that force their way onto the team create a ripple effect of cap savings that will improve the team in other areas.

The biggest changes really will be on the fourth line, where Toronto will be relying on the fact players are graduating from the Marlies lies to continue to provide the same tactical consistency and organizational familiarity.

When you contrast the approach with the historical strategies of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Atlantic Division rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins; this approach has typically served them well.

Even dating back to the successful play-off years of the Detroit Red Wings, it was built upon graduating players from their AHL team, once they were almost over-ripe.

That will absolutely be the hope for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season. For all of the differences, the hope will be for the same results in the regular season and much- improved results in the postseason.