Toronto Maple Leafs Will Lose the Fanbase If They Run It Back

It feels like the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to run it back with the same core, which is extremely disappointing.

Reports indicate that Sheldon Keefe will remain as the head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs to start the 2023-24 season, while Brendan Shanahan’s intention is to keep the team’s core-four. I know that this roster is good, but why in the world are they not trying to upgrade?

Over the past few years, the Leafs have used the approach of “stud’s and dud’s” and it has won them many games during the regular season. However, when the playoffs come around, the team’s best players haven’t carried enough weight and they’ve been beaten every year in the first round, except one.

How many times is this organization going to go through a season with this group and realize, they don’t have all of the right pieces to win?

Is this team one of the top-five most talented teams in the NHL? 100 percent, YES!

However, their talent is too top-heavy. They have four of the best offensive players in the world, but they don’t have enough to win. Sure, Joseph Woll could go on a run and look like a number-one goaltender for a few weeks, but are we really putting all of our faith in him?

When you have Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on your roster, you need to balance out the rest of the team to give them the best chance to win.

Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Have What it Takes To Win Right Now

The Toronto Maple Leafs have  continued to be compared to team’s like the Colorado Avalanche, Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Chicago Blackhawks and Washington Capitals of the past decade, but there’s two things that those teams had that Toronto didn’t: A number-one defenseman and/or a rock-solid goalie.

For example, Colorado had a Norris Trophy winning defenseman in Cale Makar to complement Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

The Pittsburgh Penguins had Kris Letang and Matt Murray to offset Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Tampa Bay had Victor Hedmen and Andrei Vasilevskiy to go alongside Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov.

Then, the Blackhawks and Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith with Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, while the Capitals had former Vezina Trophy winner Braden Holtby with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov.

All of those roster had the high-end offensive skill, but they also had a goaltender or defenseman that was one of the best in the league, whereas Toronto has never had that. Despite having John Tavares, William Nylander, Matthews and Marner, it hasn’t been enough to win because they haven’t had that rockstar goalie or defenseman.

Toronto’s goaltending has consisted of Freddie Andersen, Jack Campbell and Ilya Samsonov, who have been fine, while their best defenseman has been Morgan Rielly, who no offense to him, isn’t a number-one defenseman.

Rielly is probably the 40th best defenseman in hockey, while those three goalies at best were maybe the 10th best in hockey at their peak, so that’s not going to get the job done.

You can argue that the Penguins won the Stanley Cup while Letang was injured, so their defensive-group was weak, but they still had Murray, who played like the best goalie in the world during their Stanley Cup run. Even with Sidney Crosby on the roster, the Penguins needed awesome goaltending to win the championship.

Defense is always going to outshine offense. You obviously still need skill, but the Leafs need cash in some of their skill for defense.

If you lose one of Matthews, Marner, Tavares or Nylander, the team isn’t all of a sudden going to be a rebuilder. In fact, the team will probably be better if you’re able to acquire a Vezina Trophy goalie or Norris Trophy-type defenseman in return.

I’m not saying that Toronto needs to shake up the entire roster but they do need a re-tool. Brad Treliving needs to make a move before the start of the 2023-24 season or fans are going to be disinterested and rattled before the year even starts.