The Toronto Maple Leafs are coming off a loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday Night that was so poorly officiated that they can hardly be expected to care about the result of the game.
Tonight, the Toronto Maple Leafs will take on Sheldon Keefe, Jack Hughes and the rest of the New Jersey Devils as they finish up a mini two game road trip that will see them back in Toronto for a game against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks on Thursday.
The Leafs are having a good season, but you can't really say it's great until they stop being propped up by their insane goaltending, which can't and won't last. It is great to bank points when your goalies are hot, but it's also key to recognize that this is a flawed team that has no centre depth, needs at least one more star forward and another star defenseman.
Unfortunately, the Leafs are capped out while some of their toughest competition - the Rangers for instance - have a better roster and eight million in cap space.
How do the Toronto Maple Leafs overcome their biggest problem?
The Leafs biggest problem is that they are capped out and teams they will need to beat to make it to the Stanley Cup Final already have similarly good, or better, rosters aren't.
Leafs GM Brad Treliving is well known for not liking to make in-season moves, and not being a big fan of the Trade Deadline. Of course, these are absolutely ridiculous things for a GM to be known for, but such is the case.
Additionally, the Leafs have no cap space. Zero.
They also happen to be in WIN NOW mode, because their best players are peaking, and their complimentary players are mostly old as hell. Given the team's committments to geriatric NHLers, this year is by far their best shot to win.
So how do they overcome these problems when you couple them with the fact that every team they are competing with for the Cup, save New Jersey and Edmonton, has more cap space than they have?
Adding complimentary players isn't going to help the Leafs. I saw someone float the idea of Noah Acciari last week - are you kidding me? What's he gonna do that Alex Steeves can't do?
The days of minor upgrades are over, since the Leafs have - easily - the best collection of bottom-of-the-lineup players in the NHL. What the Leafs need is a star player for their bottom six, and a star player for their top-four.
But how do get that when capped out and lacking assets? They need to get creative, but whatever Brad Treliving is, he sure isn't known for his creative and imaginative roster sollutions.
One way to put themselves into the Rangers position would be to figure out a way to get out of the Max Domi and Oliver Ekman-Larsson contracts. Their combined $7.25 salary is some of the most poorly spent money in the NHL. But are the Leafs smart enough, confident enough, to admit their errors and call an audible on the fly?
Nothing about their recent actions suggests as much. If I had to guess, I would say that the Leafs waste this season by making small, unnecessary upgrades that don't move the needle at all.
Assuming the Leafs wouldn't even consider a Domi/OEL sell off, they could scratch almost four million by ditching Kampf and Reaves, but that isn't going to allow them to make a big move.
The Leafs can get some cap space by moving some combination of Domi, OEL, Kampf, and Reaves, but they likely won't, which means upgrading the roster is virtually impossible. Outside of an injury to Tavares or Rielly that magicaly heals April 10th, the Leafs aren't going to be able to make significant upgrades or solve their biggest problem.
Currently, whether we want to admit it or not, the Leafs are a middle-of-the-pack contender with a good, but not great, roster. They have a real chance to win this year, but how to keep pace with an already better Rangers roster with eight-million in cap space, or even upgrading enough to get closer to the Panthers, remains a seriously conundrum.