3 Reasons Toronto Maple Leafs Will Win the Stanley Cup

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Could this be the year that the Toronto Maple Leafs finally break through and win a Stanley Cup?

We all know that the story about the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past few years. They’re a great regular season who can only win three games in the playoffs, before losing in heartbreak fashion.

As a fan, it’s probably the worst place to be. You know that your team is good enough to compete, but you haven’t been able to reap the rewards. We’ve had our hopes up, especially last year when the team went up 3-2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, but everything came crashing down as usual.

So, why is this year different?

Well, I can’t really tell you it will be different. In fact, I assume it will go the exact same way and the Leafs will lose in seven games this year, most likely against Tampa Bay again. But, since I’m a sick and twisted Toronto fan, I have optimism that things will change.

If you made a bet at a Vegas sportsbook that the Leafs would lose their first post-season match-up in the last possible game, they would take that bet every day of the week. The odds that would actually happen ever year would probably be 1000-1 because that’s so rare.

As a result, this result is going to have to change eventually. If you take five spins at the Roulette table and it comes up black five times in a row, you’re bound to hit red on that sixth spin, but maybe the board will always be black for the Leafs.

Personally, I think things can change this year and here are three reasons why the Toronto Maple Leafs can win a Stanley Cup this year.

May 4, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (16) Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 1 Reason the Toronto Maple Leafs Will Win The Cup: Core-Four Forwards

Toronto still has one of the best top-six’s in all of hockey thanks to Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.

Fans like to yell at these forwards for not making enough of an impact in the playoffs, but last year they proved their worth, despite losing in Game 7 once again.

They were all basically point-per-game players and all contributed offensively.

They didn’t deliver in Game 7 though, which was the main reason they didn’t win the series, but I felt like they did enough in the other six games to give their team a chance at winning the series.

Not to mention that Tampa goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy had one of the best games of his career that night.

The team defense, goaltending and other players let them down, as it wasn’t the core-four’s fault.

If the combination of Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares like playing together and want to do so beyond 2024, then this needs to be their biggest playoffs yet.

All four of those players have contracts expiring soon, so it’s possible that they all don’t play together as early as next season, so I’d expect them to have their best performance yet.

Nov 19, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Matt Murray (30) . Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 2: Goaltending

Matt Murray’s health is in-question and Ilya Samsonov is edging close towards his most games started in a season, but the Leafs should feel good about their goaltending.

The Leafs aren’t going to get goaltending as good as Andrei Vasilevskiy, but if the Coloardo Avalanche proved us anything last year, it’s that you can win a Stanley Cup without elite goaltending. Instead, you just need someone who can be steady and above-average and that’s exactly what Darcy Kuemper did last year.

Kuemper had a .902 SV% and 2.57 GAA in 16 starts last year, which was good enough to take down the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions and the Leafs can bank on their two goalies being similar.

Samsonov is the better goalie this regular season with with a .915 SV% and 2.41 GAA, but Murray’s career playoff stats (2.18 GAA and .921 SV%) would suggest that he will be the Game 1 starter when the Leafs get going in a few weeks.

It’s never fun not knowing who your Game 1 starter will be when the playoffs start, but this has worked out for many Stanley Cup champions over the past few years.

There was controversey surronding the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins Game 1 starters when they went on thier magical runs, so maybe the same thing can happen with Toronto this year.

TORONTO, CANADA – FEBRUARY 18: Ryan O’Reilly #90 skates in his 1st game as a Toronto Maple Leaf . (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /

No. 3: Trade Deadline Acquisitions

For the first time in the Kyle Dubas era, the team decided to go “all-in” at the Trade Deadline this year, despite having a very good roster. Instead of being complacent, they decided to address their leadership, depth and physicality with the moves they made.

Ryan O’Reilly may be injured but as long as he’s ready to play Game 1 of the playoffs, the team will be fine. Despite having to get surgery for his broken finger, that type of injury won’t be a concern when the playoffs start.

As for the other additions, Sam Lafferty, Noel Acciari and Jake McCabe specifically will be big additions to the roster.

The two forwards can provide scoring all while providing extreme depth in the team’s bottom-six. Meanwhile, McCabe is a top-four defenseman on the team, so he’ll be a huge addition eating up lots of minutes in the playoffs.

It would have been easy for the Leafs to make one big move for O’Reilly and have called it quits. However, they addressed their needs perfectly and those additions will be important in the playoffs.

Next. Stop saying the Leafs are cursed. dark

It wouldn’t be shocking if O’Reilly scores a big goal or McCabe makes a big defensive play that is the difference-maker in the post-season this year, so look for the new additions to be important pieces in the biggest games of the year.

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