The 2024-25 Toronto Maple Leafs season is right around the corner and fans should be getting excited.
Is it just me or is does this season feel like it's one of the least hyped Toronto Maple Leafs seasons of the past decade? Auston Matthews is coming off an incredible 69 goal season, yet we seem to forget just how good this roster is.
Maybe it's because this team has continued to haunt us year-after-year, but I haven't met a single Leafs fan this offseason that goes "I can't wait to watch this team this year." Instead, fans talk about how the regular season doesn't matter and to wake them up when they're back in Game 7 of the First Round.
And you know what, I can't blame anyone for that logic. Every single year, the Leafs seemingly find themselves in a Game 7, but not only that, it's usually against the Boston Bruins and they lose. That's unfortuntely how the script has played out since 2013 and we have every right to believe it will happen again this year.
Although that may happen, I'm going to look at this season with more of a glass half-full approach and hope that good things follow. As such, here are five hot takes involving the Toronto Maple Leafs 2024-25 season.
No. 1: Bobby McMann Will Be Sent to AHL
I hate starting this hot-take list off with a downer, but can someone tell me why we're so invested in Bobby McMann being a top-six left-winger for the Leafs next year? McMann is a 28-year-old with only 66 NHL games of experience and is somehow being treated like he's a sure thing, when he hasn't proved anything in this league yet.
I know the Leafs signed him to a one-way contract for two more seasons, but why does that automatically assume that he's going to be the guy? The team just gave Max Pacioretty a PTO, then also have Easton Cowan, Nick Robertson and potentially Pontus Holmberg looming as other options.
The one attribute that McMann has over those other wingers is his size, but he doesn't have the shot that Robertson posseses or the skills that Cowan does, so wouldn't it make more sense for one of those two players to jump ahead of him?
If that happens and then Pacioretty is a viable option as well, it could push McMann out of the line-up and back to the Toronto Marlies or on waivers.
I think McMann has a lot of good skills, but I wouldn't pencil him into a top-six position, quite yet, as I wouldn't be shocked if he's all of a sudden in the press box, more than he's on the ice.