The Toronto Maple Leafs know better than anyone that balance is a hard thing to achieve.
Under ex-Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, the Leafs were a rushing team that played with a high pace. Their roster was filled with talented young players deep in the lineup like Connor Brown, Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnson.
In the subsequent years, the Leafs have moved towards a more grinding approach at the bottom of their lineup.
This year it got to the point where there was basically no offence outside of the top two lines.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Get More Skilled
Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari are 15-20 goal scorers over the course of a full year, but they don’t really have any offensive upside. Matt Knies was on that line for a bit, and he does, but he’s likely going to end up on a scoring line next year.
The Leafs bottom-six often included Aston-Reese, Lafferty, Kampf and Kerfoot, none of whom have any scoring upside whatsover to speak of at this point.
The Leafs had six to eight effective, solid defensive forwards at the bottom of their lineup, but no one who could be counted on to score.
Ryan O’Reilly had nine points in 11 playoff games, but five of those points came in two games. He only had four points in the other nine games, so the total is misleading. That’s not exactly horrible or anything, but given that he’s a first line quality player getting relatively easy minutes, you’d like to see more scoring.
In the regular season he scored 11 points in 13 games, but seven points, including all but one of the goals, came in two games. In the other 11 games he had one goal and three assists.
What the Leafs need is an actual scoring threat from their third line. They need young players in the bottom six who have upside.
It’s OK to have one Sam Lafferty/Aston-Reese/David Kampf type, but not three regulars who cannot ever score.
Promoting a few rookies will help the Leafs, and if they’re smart they can identify a free-agent or two with some offensive upside.
The absolute last thing they can do, however, is return with a bottom-six setup that is so devoid of offense. The team will seem a lot harder to play when all four lines can score.
Another thing the Leafs should avoid is having defenseman who have no offense. When the Learfs were icing Holl, Giordano and Schenn in the playoffs, they just didn’t have enough puck moving prowess for elite forwards to work with.
While I would have loved the Toronto Maple Leafs to win the Stanley Cup, I do find it to be ironically hilarious that their downfall was too many grinders who can’t score.