3 Reasons Toronto Maple Leafs Will Win the Stanley Cup
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.
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.
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.