The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a great position heading into the stretch run of the NHL season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs played the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, and while this was written ahead of time, I can say for sure that their lead in the division could be anywhere from one to five points right now.
Either way, they are in great shape with six games to go. The team may not consistently dominate their opposition like you'd want from a contender, but the results they get are fantastic. They are not technically eliminated from the President's Trophy contention, assuming they won last night, but they do have a very good chance of finishing top-five in the entire NHL.
Even if the Leafs are a legit third-line centre and an elite number-one defenseman away from being the best team in hockey, they are still an extremely good team with a very good chance to win the Stanley Cup. Here's three reasons why I think they'll win it.
3 Reasons the Toronto Maple Leafs will win the Stanley Cup
MVP Level Players
Few teams in the NHL can boast even one legitamate Hart Trophy level player. The Leafs have two and sort of have a third.
Auston Matthews scored 69 times last year, and if voters were more informed and less swayed by power-play points, Matthews would have won his second Hart Trophy last year.
Mitch Marner is only slightly behind in the scoring race, and yet he's started about 300 less times on the Ozone than the league's leading scorer, Nathan MacKinnon. Marner is better defensively and plays harder minutes than everyone who scores more than he does, and he is a real Hart Trophy candidate.
Finally, Anthony Stolarz is, over the last two seasons, only worse than Connor Hellebuyck. Given the importance of goalies in the NHL, this is like having another MVP on the roster.
Super-Star Supporting Cast
Marner and Matthews turn Matthew Knies into a superstar level player. John Tavares has 36 goals and has missed 7 games, otherwise he'd be like 5th in the NHL In goals. William Nylander has 42 goals and is second in the NHL.
Morgan Rielly still puts up star-level numbers when he's not stuck babysitting OEL, and the Tanev/McCabe pairing is one of the best in all of hockey, making them both stars.
When you include the goalies, the Leafs have about ten players - Matthews, Marner, Knies, Tavares, Nylander, Rielly, Tanev, McCabe, Woll and Stolarz who are star players. How many teams can match that?
Young Forwards
In addition to all their star players, what makes the Toronto Maple Leafs so great is their collection of young forwards. Though they aren't necessarily ever going to be superstar players, the Leafs are getting a ton of value out of having four players combine to make less than a million each, on average.
Bobby Mcmann, Matthew Knies, Pontus Holmberg and Nick Robertson have all contribued wonderfully to the team this season, and they've given the coach a ton of options and make the Leafs a very hard team to play against.
The value of having all four for less than four million is unreal. Holmberg plays great with Nylander, McMann has forced his way into the top six, Robertson is really underrated, and Knies is a step above them all. This is a huge advantage.
And we haven't even talked about Alex Steeves. How many other NHL teams could call up a guy scoring at a 50 goal pace?
These three things - the Hart Level playesr, the total number of stars and the young forwards are what give the Leafs a better chance than they've ever had to win the Stanley Cup.