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Toronto Maple Leafs Eventual New GM Has It Pretty Easy

By James Tanner |
TAMPA, FLORIDA - APRIL 29: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates a goal in the second period during Game Six of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on April 29, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
TAMPA, FLORIDA - APRIL 29: Auston Matthews #34 of the Toronto Maple Leafs celebrates a goal in the second period during Game Six of the First Round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on April 29, 2023 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

The Toronto Maple Leafs new GM – whoever that turns out to be – is getting pretty much the easiest job in the world.

The Toronto Maple Leafs will enter next season as one of, if not the absolute favorite to win the Stanley Cup.

Whoever ends up running this team, most of the hard work is already done for them.

The Toronto Maple Leafs finished fourth overall, just two points out of second overall.  Had Boston not had the luckiest season in NHL history, there is a very good chance the Leafs would have won the President’s Trophy.

in the playoffs the Leafs didn’t win, but they didn’t really lose either.  They were defeated by the hottest goalie the NHL has seen, possibly ever.  It could happen to anyone, including the league’s 1st and 3rd best teams, who also went down to Florida.

Toronto Maple Leafs New GM Has It Easy

The New Leafs GM might have ten UFAs or whatever it is, but all of those guys can easily be replaced.  The important things are already taken care of.

Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, John Tavares and William Nylander are all signed for next season.

The new guy has over a year to sign Matthews and if he wants to put his stamp on the team, he’ll most likely try to trade Nylander for #1 Defenseman.

If he would rather keep Nylander, he’ll keep Nylander.  But Matthews, Tavares, Marner and Rielly ain’t going anywhere, no matter how many columns are written about it.

Regardless of the Nylander Decision, the new GM already has a ready-made contender, tons of tradable assets, and a bunch of UFAs that will allow him to clear cap space and re-stock for next year.

Also, the Leafs farm system is just about to start paying off. Matthew Knies,  Nick Robertson, Pontus Holmberg, Frazor Minten, Ty Voit, Roni Hiroven, Topi Niemela and others are going to be fighting to make the NHL starting next year.

Timothy Liljegren is ready to take the next step towards stardom.

The point here is that while everything seems crazy in light of the Leafs loss to Florida and the surprise firing of Kyle Dubas, the team is basically ready to win and Kyle Dubas is poised to be the next Dale Tallon / Steve Yzerman as the team he built goes on to win without him.

Next. Best GM Options for Leafs. dark

The Toronto Maple Leafs situation is really very good and the new GM is going to look like a genius no matter what he does, because you basically couldn’t screw this up, it’s. slam dunk.

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