In what will surely be one of his last acts as the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving should give a massive raise to whoever convinced him to sign Anthony Stolraz after Plan A, Plan B and Plan C all fell through for the Leafs this summer.
I think everyone knows deep down that if the Toronto Maple Leafs do not make it at least to the third round of the NHL Playoffs this season, President Brendan Shanahan and his entire entourage are going to be escorted from the premises.
And I think we can all agree that with the current roster there isn't a hope in Hell that the Leafs can make it that far. There are just too many problems to overcome, especially for a GM who is on the record as saying he doesn't really like to make trades in-season or at the Trade Deadline.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Leafs are in trouble, and if not for Anthony Stolarz, this season would already be circling the drain. (Please note all stats for this article are current prior to last night's games).
Goaltending hiding almost all of the Toronto Maple Leafs many flaws
Anthony Stolarz currently has a .930 save percentage, and is keeping the Leafs season alive.
The Leafs are 9-6-2 which is just over .500 and honestly not that good when a team has three franchise players and a goalie with some of the best numbers in the NHL.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have the 4th highest 5v5 save-percentage in the NHL but have just the 12th best record in the NHL. They are 14th by expected-goals percentage, and if not for the unsustainable goaltending, they'd be closer to the middle of the NHL than they are.
The goaltending is helping, but they are playing in a way that suggest they should have the 14th best defense and the 13th best offense. Add in a terrible power-play and a bunch of injuries, and you have a team that is clearly being propped up by it's goaltending.
The Leafs have no centre depth. They have 2 x top-nine NHL centres on their roster, and that's it. Their bottom-six is a black hole of offense and they aren't getting any scoring from McMann, Domi or Robertson. The Leafs are 18th in the NHL in total 5v5 goals per minute of ice time.
In their last game, they dressed 5 x fourth liners, and even with the injuries that's unacceptable. The Leafs defense is bad, their depth is an issue and their starts are not performing as they could be.
If not for Anthony Storlarz, the Leafs would likely not be in a playoff spot right now. That's concerning.