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3 Reasons Toronto Maple Leafs Will Win the Stanley Cup

By Stephen Nixon

Feb 21, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) celebrates his goal with teammates during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 21, 2023; Buffalo, New York, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs center John Tavares (91) celebrates his goal with teammates during the first period against the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports /
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May 4, 2022; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner (16) and Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews (34) breakout of their zone against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the second period of game two of the first round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
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.

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