Toronto Maple Leafs Could Learn Lessons From Golden Knights Approach

The Toronto Maple Leafs could learn some important lessons from the newly crowned Stanley Cup champions, the Vegas Golden Knights.

Not all of the lessons the team might learn will sit comfortably with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It’s where, since they arrived on the scene six years ago, the Golden Knights have differentiated themselves.

They placed a lesser value on traditional hockey traits like loyalty and instead gone all-in every year on building a winner.

How Does This Compare To The Toronto Maple Leafs?

First and foremost, there is no Core Four in Vegas. There’s the Original Misfits – the six remaining players from the Expansion Draft, but that’s it and those six certainly aren’t all the expected star players.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have trusted their core for at least six seasons now since John Tavares arrived. In the meantime, Vegas have turned over 80% of their expansion roster. What’s more, some of their moves haven’t exactly been small.

Marc-Andre Fleury, a fan favourite from day one, was traded despite winning the Vezina Trophy. Likewise, a Jack Adams Award with Vegas wasn’t enough to save head coach Gerard Gallant when the team hit a rough patch of form a couple of seasons later.

Of course, in hockey circles, people pride themselves on being loyal, being honourable and doing the right thing – certainly the Toronto Maple Leafs under Kyle Dubas did, famously proclaiming that certain players wouldn’t be moved on his watch.

Vegas on the other hand couldn’t care less. In the past six years, they’ve moved on key players, they’ve played all sorts of salary cap shenanigans and ultimately won a Stanley Cup in just their sixth season.

Fiercely unafraid if upsetting the apple cart, by moving for players like Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo or Robin Lehner, even when the obvious line-up or salary cap fit isn’t clear, they’ve created a new and different winning formula.

Even former Toronto Maple Leafs winger and holder of the league’s ‘Iron Man streak’, Phil Kessel hasn’t been immune; healthy scratched for much of the playoff run.

What’s more, on the ice, there are certain huge lessons the Toronto Maple Leafs can take away.

The Golden Knights really look to share the load with their defensive pairings and it could be expected that a lot of teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs included, look to balance blue-line ice time more akin to Vegas.

There are some star players on their roster, for sure, but the ‘by committee’ approach seems to ring a little truer too.

Their three highest paid players this year per CapFriendly were Jack Eichel ($10m), Mark Stone ($9.5m) and Alex Pietrangelo ($8.8m).

Contrast that with the Toronto Maple Leafs trio, also per CapFriendly, of Auston Matthews ($11.64m), John Tavares ($11m) and Mitch Marner ($10.9m).

The Toronto Maple Leafs are sinking a considerable amount more into their three highest-paid players, taking away spending for elsewhere in the line-up.

Perhaps the biggest lesson anyone can take from this win, aside from the need to display absolute ruthlessness is that goaltending only matters when your team defends poorly.

Adin Hill, a career third-string guy just left Vegas to a Stanley Cup. He was a trade pickup for the cost of a fourth rounder – not a half bad deal in hindsight!

Ultimately, they moved on from one star goalie, another star one was injured. Maybe the Leafs pairing of Ilya Samsonov and Joseph Woll could’ve got the job done?!

The simple fact in all of this is that the Vegas Golden Knights arrived in the league six years ago, willing to break the mould and ultimately it’s led them to the Stanley Cup.

The question is; will Brad Treliving be willing to demonstrate such a ruthless streak for the Toronto Maple Leafs?