The Toronto Maple Leafs are the deepest team in the NHL. It is indisputable.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the NHL in players taken off waivers over the last several seasons, while they have better players in the AHL than most other teams have on their 4th lines.
Look at their forwards: Jarnkork is on the 2nd line, and Kerfoot-Kampf-Engvall are some of the best non-star players alive in the world.
With the likes of Alex Steeves, Joey Anderson, Adam Gautdette, Wayne Simmonds, Zach Aston-Reece, Pontus Holmberg, Nick Robertson (injured), Nick Abruzzese, Dryden Hunt, Kyle Clifford and Bobby McMann the Leafs have 11 NHL players fighting for 3 spots.
Two if they add a forward at the deadline and don’t move one out. Maybe those guys don’t seem like much, but they are real NHL players, and in a cap world, having an excess of those is impressive.
On defense, they have to choose between sitting Justin Holl and Connor Timmins, both of whom would be in competition for the best #6 defenseman on any team in the league. Frankly, the Leafs have seven defenseman who could play in the top four of a contending team. They may lack a legitimate Dougie Hamilton type superstar, but their depth is the best in the NHL.
With this much depth, there is no point in 99% of the (silly) names being bandied about as options for the Leafs at the trade deadline.
Toronto Maple Leafs Need Stars Only
If the Leafs do want to get some depth, and they want to trade away some low picks or whatever, that isn’t a problem. In fact, it’s an extremely likely occurrence.
But if they do not add star players in addition to those minor moves, it will be a massive failure of the organization.
Sam Lafferty, Max Domi, Ivan Barbashev are all players people are talking about, and they are all players who, at best, could play below Pierre Engvall on the 4th line.
Does anyone really think the Leafs problem is their fourth line? Give me a break. These players do nothing. They actually do less than nothing if they block say Holmberg, Steeves, Robertson or someone with actual upside from playing.
Other than experience and name-brand cache, it would actually be better to play Wayne Simmonds and Alex Steeves than Domi and Barbashev, since there is such a small difference between what you’d get for your eight to ten minutes per night that the cheaper players will always make your team better. (Assuming the team spends to the cap).
Here is a list of players that will help the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup:
Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson, Jakob Chychrun, and Dylan Larkin (They are the only superstar players assumed to be available). If the Leafs can’t get one of them they will have failed completely. The only exception is if there is a star who is not known to be available today and they get him, whoever he may be.
Players like Vladislav Gavrikov, Ryan O’Reilly, Travis Konecny, or Jake McCabe would be perfectly fine secondary additions, but if they are the main move the team makes, it’s a failure.
The fact is, the Toronto Maple Leafs are victims of their own roster building success. They literally cannot improve on what they have unless they add star players. Therefore, if the best they pull out of this deadline is Travis Koknecy, then it’s a complete failure, and I won’t care so much when the team inevitably bails on everything good about this organization.
There has never been a better or more reasonable time for a team to push all their chips into the middle.