Toronto Maple Leafs: Breaking Down the 2023-24 Blue-Line

Strengths

The strengths of the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line are that they are great puck movers.  All six players expected to start opening night can be considered to be puck-moving defensemen, and the Leafs have a lot of superstar forwards to pair with them.

This could end up being a great situation.

John Klingberg could thrive in a sheltered role where his only job is to score.  Marc Giordano could play like he did in the first half of last year, and the Leafs would have a great bottom pairing.

If Rielly plays like he did in the playoffs, maybe he can get back to his elite ways.  TJ Brodie got terrible results in last year’s playoffs, but his numbers were pretty good and he’s a smart player who shouldn’t be too affected by the decline of his physical skills.

Jake McCabe could be the bargain of the century, assuming his playoff performance was just some bad results during a short-sample size, while Timothy Liljegren could finally become the player we always hoped.

The problem here?  Outside of the team’s puck-moving abilities, these aren’t so much “strengths” as they are a “best case scenario.”

Weaknesses

• Strengths (see above)
• Age (five of the six players are either already 30+ or will be at some point this season)
• Lack of Physicality (Only McCabe is physical)
• Lack of Upside (Outside of Liljegren, no one has ANY upside)
• Lack of Elite Talent / Star Power  (Elite players are the most important factor in any blue-line and the Leafs don’t figure to have any).
• Poor Balance (obvious)
• No Depth (Simon Benoit is actually going to play. Yikes).
• Possible Klingberg in the top-four.