Toronto Maple Leafs Headline November Canadian Team Power Rankings
By James Tanner
Toronto Maple Leafs #1 By a Mile
When the second best Canadian team is currently borderline to make the playoffs, this exercise hardly seems fair.
Canada has seven teams.
Two are rebuilding.
Two need to rebuild.
Three are contenders.
But not equal contenders. The Flames would be the best if star players didn’t drive results and if goalies were predictable. Their roster is very good, and they’ve also got a name-brand goalie.
Unfortunately, star players drive results and goalies ARE random.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are similar to the Oilers in that their two best players could go to any roster in the NHL and instantly make them a playoff team and a contender.
The difference here is that if the Leafs best player was John Tavares, they would still make the playoffs. That is not something the Oilers could say if Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was their best guy.
The Leafs have the most star players in the NHL.
They are also the deepest team.
Last year, they finished 4th overall with the 28th best goaltending.
This year, their goaltending is good and they almost never lose.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the NHL’s best Canadian Team, and it isn’t up for debate. The only people who would say differently are either fans of other teams, or people trying to get attention.
You could argue that there are teams in the NHL that are better than the Leafs, but those teams would be American and that argument would also probably be bad.
dark. Next. 10 Star Players for Leafs to Target at the Trade Deadline
It’s pretty clear that if the NHL’s 4th best team has had to deal with all four of their best defenseman missing significant time, as well as both their top two goalies and the organization’s AHL starter getting injured, then they are probably the NHL’s best team.