It's April which means the Toronto Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers are obviously playing a huge meaingingful game against each other, but this year it's for a different reason.
The Leafs and Panthers have had multiple playoff series over the past few years that haven't gone in Toronto's favour, but this time we're all hoping our beloved blue-and-white lose. As a result, that probably means this will be the only time they beat their divisonal rivals.
The top-five protected draft pick that the Leafs gifted the Boston Bruins last year has been looming over this team for the past few months. When GM Brad Treliving gave away that pick, he never anticipated that his team would be one of the worst in the NHL one season later and hoped that pick would be in high 20's, or even better No. 32.
Unfortunately for every fan and the entire organization, the Leafs could be without a first-round pick in the one NHL Entry Draft that they desperately need one. Depending on where you look, the current NHL Mock Draft looks something like this for the top five picks: Gavin McKenna (LW), Ivar Stenberg (LW), Chase Reid (RD), Keaton Verhoeff (RD) and Carson Carels (LD).
If the Leafs fall into the top-five, they will guarantee themselves either a top-six forward or a top-pairing defenseman. However, if they fall outside of it, they will get nothing and this season will be an utter disaster.
That's why their game against Florida means so much right now. The Panthers are Leafs are currently tied for sixth-last in the standings and are only one point ahead of the Seattle Kraken for the fifth spot. The Kraken could still lose their remaining four games to keep Toronto out, but they fortuantely play the Calgary Flames tomorrow, who they should beat.
Leafs vs. Panthers is a meaningful game for different reasons this season
The Panthers also traded their first-round pick away but they were smart enough to make it top-10 protected, so win or lose, they should still comfortably be within that. As for the Leafs, there is zero wiggle-room and every point they get will make this top-five reality essentially impossible.
Toronto is without Auston Matthews, Chris Tanev and Brando Carlo which makes sense why they have been struggling, but the Panthers are without Alex Barkov, Brad Marchand, Aaron Ekblad, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Dmitry Kulikov, Anton Lundell and Evan Rodrigues and they have the same points.
If the Leafs organization think that a few injuries is the reason why this team is bad, they need to look at the Panthers and realize that it's going to take way more than a few healthy players to compete with a healthy Florida team.
It would be the most Leafy thing in the world for them to beat the Panthers on Saturday night, so that's obviously what I'm expecting, but if there's any hope at the top-five pick, they need to play horrible and lose.