5 Toronto Maple Leafs Thoughts for the end of the summer
By James Tanner
4. Defense
The Blue-Line is so average and lacks a high-end option. Creative management would have at least tried to fix this, but instead they have four years to Oliver Ekman-Larsson, which I think is easily the dumbest thing anyone did this off-season.
The Leafs are going to need to get lucky with one of their prospects, or their blue-line is going to be a disaster.
To sum up: the blue-line has no high-end option, it is old, injury prone and only average to below average at moving the puck. The group as a whole lacks upside, and Brendan Shanahan staking an entire decade of work on the 34 year old Chris Tanev is.....at best........a weird bet.
Check out our in-depth full-scale exploration and analysis of the Toronto Maple Leafs Blue-Line.
3 Adding More Players
Every day it's:
"Is Nick Jenson available?"
"Can we get a washed up JVR?"
"What about Nick Cousins?"
"Who should the Leafs get for a PTO?"
Honestly, I'm so sick of every random name being attached to this hockey team. The Leafs don't need to add any more players, unless those players are stars. If they can add a star player in a trade, they should do so.
No offense to your childhood hero, but this team needs JVR back like they need Brad Treliving to pop out of hibernation and see his own shadow.
Otherwise, they should relax. They should try to see if any of their prospects can make a name for themselves and provide some cheap roster upgrades. The Toronto Maple Leafs are a guaranteed playoff lock. Few other teams in the NHL have a higher floor than the Leafs. There is no need to fill out every possible roster spot in the next few weeks.
Sure, if a team calls you up and offers you a star player that will improve your team, you make the deal. But the Leafs need to leave room for Matthew Kniews to climb up to the first line. They need to make sure that Easton Cowan, Roni Hirvonen, Alex Steeves and Fraser Minten can be on the team if they earn it.
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But most of all, they need to find out if Topi Niemela is an NHL player. If he can crack the blue-line and force the team to give him minutes, that means less Simon Benoit and less Jake McCabe. That can only be a good thing.