The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Fire or Trade Someone

The Toronto Maple Leafs may only be 4-4-2 but it feels like their world is collapsing.

A simple west coast trip was not supposed to go the way it did for the Toronto Maple Leafs. In four games, the team only secured two points, losing every game in either regulation or overtime.

Zero wins for a Stanley Cup contender against two of the worst teams in the NHL is unacceptable. In fact, it’s just downright embarrassing.

Losing to Vegas was justified, however if there was a game I would have guaranteed they’d win, it would have been that one. Then, came San Jose, LA and Anaheim.

The three-game California swing, which used to be the hardest stretch of hockey is now a pillow-fight. Surely, the Leafs could pick up two of three wins and head back to Toronto happy, right?

Wrong.

Toronto went down early and couldn’t come back against San Jose, losing in overtime. Then, on Saturday night, Toronto could only score two goals against Cal Petersen who has a .865 SV% and 4.10 GAA this year.

Petersen has one of the worst stats of any starting goalie thus far and Toronto couldn’t even win that one.

With three losses in a row, surely Toronto couldn’t lose again as they faced the dead-last Anaheim Ducks. Even on a back-to-back, any good team would rally and find a way to win, but nope, they couldn’t even do that. After holding a 3-1 lead in the third period, Toronto fell asleep and eventually lost 4-3 in overtime.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Trade or Fire Someone

If you look at the NHL standings, the season is far from lost, but 10 points in 10 games is not good.

That’s an 82-point pace which would put them well out of a playoff spot by spring.

We’ve all assumed that Toronto would make the playoffs this year, and that’s still a highly possibility, but maybe the players have also guaranteed that in their head? Maybe they think the playoffs are a lock and that the regular season doesn’t really matter because they’ll be playing meaninful hockey in six months.

If that’s the case, Toronto needs to make a change immediately.

A few seasons ago, they fired Mike Babcock and replaced him with Sheldon Keefe who did a marvelous job, getting them into a potential playoff berth and then ultiamtely leading them to the best two statsitical regular seasons in Leafs history.

However, that was three years ago now. The Leafs don’t owe Keefe anything for previous success because at the end of the day, regular season success doesn’t really matter. It’s all about the playoffs and if Keefe can’t get out of the First Round either, then why do you need to keep him?

Firing the coach is the easiest solution, but Dubas and Keefe are seemingly best friends, at least from a business perspective. They’ve grinded from the OHL, AHL and now NHL so firing him isn’t as easy as it sounds. With one year left on his contract, he’d probably ride it out with Keefe by his side, so instead, a trade is a must.

The fact that Justin Holl is still in the line-up is a joke, but the team as a whole needs a change.

They need to make a splash, whether that’s trading Holl, Alex Kerfoot, Pierre Engvall, Jake Muzzin or all four of them. Hell, trade all your best prospects and draft picks and go get Patrick Kane already.

Something needs to happen to shake up the dressing room to show the rest of the team that nobody is safe. This is the biggest year of the Auston Matthews’ Era and management needs to do everything they can to give the team the best chance to win, but make sure that Matthews re-signs with the Toronto Maple Leafs.