Max Pacioretty
After being hit by injury woes in recent years, the Maple Leafs took a flyer on a one-year deal with veteran Max Pacioretty this past season. Toronto was hoping that the 36-year-old winger had finally put his injury issues behind him and that he could rediscover some of his dominant form prior to his string of ailments.
Pacioretty sure ended up being a significant piece during the Leafs playoff run this season. After replacing Robertson in Game 3, the veteran winger helped with the offensive attack with three goals and five assists in 11 postseason games. More importantly, Pacioretty delivered some effective hitting and forechecking at the same time, along with tallying the series winner against the Senators during the first round.
However, if looking back to his season with the Leafs overall, it told a much more different story. Not only did Pacioretty struggle offensively with just five goals and eight assists for 13 points in 37 games played, he ended up missing more than half of the season due to various ailments once again. At 36 years old, he isn’t getting any younger, and it has become apparent that the injury bug has continued to follow him around. As promising as his playoff performance turned out to be, the Leafs can’t afford to have another season in which Pacioretty will be plagued by injuries and ineffectiveness for an extended period to limit his impact and value on the team.
Mitch Marner
Ever since the Leafs selected Marner fourth overall from the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, he has been a mainstay on the team with his “magic” on the ice. As almost the team’s perennial leader in assists, the 28-year-old winger has recorded seven seasons of 20 or more goals and six seasons of 50 or more assists in his nine-year tenure with Toronto. More significantly, Marner not only is a force on offense, but he has developed into one of the top defensive forwards in the league as well as exemplified by his Selke Trophy finalist nomination in 2023.
Despite all of his accolades and accomplishments, some still believed that he was overpaid in his previous contract of six years at $65.408 million, which comes out to about $10,901,333 AAV per season. That was because as good as Marner has been throughout the regular, he usually came out just a bit short during the playoffs. As one of the key members of the “core four”, he often disappeared from the scoresheet in the biggest games as the checking became tight and open space became non-existent.
This season, Marner appeared to be on his way to put away that notion after a strong series against the Senators. However, the same old story showed up in the battle against the Panthers during the second round. Marner was once again nowhere to be found in terms of generating offense during the final few matches with everything on the line. As tough as it may be to stomach it, with significant changes set to take place this offseason, look for the biggest move be the departure of Marner to help give the Leafs the cap space and major facelift in moulding them into a legitimate fearsome playoff force to be reckoned with.