5 Regrets the Toronto Maple Leafs Will Have This Summer

1. Not Getting a Goalie

Not adding a goalie is by far the biggest thing the Leafs GM and his associates will regret when this team is inevitably beaten in the playoffs.

Joseph Woll has talent, but he is a rookie who has played approximately one full season over the last four years. He's injury prone and has no experience. It is wise to give him a shot and I hope he succeeds, but when one of your goalies makes the league minimum there is no reason not to spend heavily another goalie, especially if the two best players in the history of your franchise are in their primes.

The Leafs are in win-now mode and coming into the season with a rookie goalie and a guy they sandbagged in arbitration and wouldn't committ to long term (smartly it turns out) is a risk they didn't need to take.

Goalies can be hard to predict and finding an elite one and then getting him to perform up to the level you expect can be the hardest thing to do in hockey. But that makes sense because the hardest thing to do should have the biggest reward, and having a top goalie is easily the best single thing a team could have.

The salary cap is no excuse because they had 20 million and decided not to use it on goalies. They also could have moved some combo of Kampf/Domi/Brodie at any time to get the cap room for a goalie.

Just because finding a top goalie is hard doesn't mean you shouldn't try. The Leafs did not do enough to land a reliable goalie and today they sit 22nd in the NHL in overall save percentage. The fact that they are the 10th best team by points-percentage with that level of goaltending is impressive.

Being 10th with the 22nd goaltending tells me that this team could be first with top-level goaltending and at the top of the league with even league-average goaltending.

The Leafs could fluke their way to a Stanley Cup this spring, but they won't be entering the NHL Playoffs as one of the top contenders and that is almost exclusively because they do not have a top goalie.

That will be their number-one regret come summertime.