After 41 games of an 82 game schedule, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a record of 26-13-2, which is very respectable.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lead the Atlantic Division by four points and are all but 100% guaranteed to make the playoffs for a league leading 9th season in a row.
The Leafs are second in the Eastern Conference by both total points and points-percentage, while they are ranked 5th in the NHL overall, and 6th by points-percentage.
They are just 3 points off the pace of the President's Trophy, which, they have never won since the NHL expanded beyond 6 teams. So it's been a pretty good season for the Leafs, at least result-wise (there are some concerning underlying numbers, but we'll ignore those for now).
Grading the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Half Way Point of the 2024-25 Season
A+
The Leafs Goalies - Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz - both receive the highest possible grade. Sure, Stolarz has been a bit better by the numbers, but he also went down with an injury, and when he did, Joseph Woll stepped up big-time.
Mitch Marner - who should be trailing only Connor Hellebuyck and Leon Draisaitl in the MVP race - also gets the highest grade possible. William Nylander has a point-per-game, despite a wonky power-play, and is second in 5v5 goals, and second in total goals.
I also give Jake McCabe and Connor Timmins the highest possible grades. McCabe has been the Leafs best defenseman, and Timmins is based more on what he's done vs expectations.
A
The second best grade goes out to John Tavares who has had an amazing comeback season.
Bobby McMann has 11 5v5 goals, the NHL leader has 14, unlike Knies (who is good but isn't getting an A) McMann has done it without playing most of his minutes with two of the best players alive. Why he plays behind Max Pacioretty or Matthew Knies is anyone's guess.
The Rest of the Roster
Auston Matthews - C - Too injured to contribute at his normal levels. Hasn't been dominant when playing.
Matthew Knies - B - you can't ignore his 13 5v5 goals, but some of his play has been concerning.
Max Pacioretty - B - it was an A before he got injured, and he hasn't been that great since coming back.
Max Domi - D - he's been horrible except for the last couple of weeks when his scoring picked up. Still, nothing he's done makes up for going nearly 20 games without a point. Good goaltending and lucky shooting means he's winning his minutes as far as the results go, but the underlying numbers are not that great.
Nick Robertson - B - Rough start, but it was fueled almost totally by bad luck. Robertson has shown great character in sticking with it and overcoming adversity. He has scored at a ridiculous rate since he started scoring *(it's about 4 points per 60 over the last month).
Stephen Lorentz - C - He's fine. His numbers don't really get any better away from Ryan Reaves, so he doesn't even have that as an excuse.
Connor Dewar - C- - the same as Lorentz, but slightly worse. Not sure why these guys play ahead of Alex Steeves.
Pontus Holmberg - C- - One of the main reason the Leafs can't be called a deep team. Like Dewar and Lorentz, he's just sort of there, existing.
Ryan Reaves - F - It's embarassing every time the Leafs dress him.
We recently graded the blue-line and you can read that article here. To recap, the grades were Jake McCabe A+, Chris Tanev B+, Morgan Rielly B-, OEL D+, Timmins A+, Benoit F.
Craig Berube gets a C. The results are good, but lucky. The coach doesn't split up his franchise players like he should, and he stubbornly refuses to play Domi with Matthews, and there is no excuse for his love of Simon Benoit. Berube's biggest flaw however is his lineups. Plus, the defensive improvement of this team under his leadership is crazy overrated.
Brad Treliving - F - sorry, but there is no excuse in the world for entering this season with Mitch Marner unsigned. This is shaping up to be one of the worst decisions in Toronto Maple Leafs history and certainly getting lucky on a fluke goalie signing doesn't change that. The Jani Hakanpaa, Max Domi and Oliver Ekman-Larsson contracts are inexcusable as is the team's centre-ice depth.