Checklist: What the Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Win the Stanley Cup
The Toronto Maple Leafs are not having a very good season to date. They are having an OK season, but they are not anywhere close to meeting expectations.
Their goalie and blue-line situations have been abysmal, and their bottom-six hasn't been much better. Their General Manager has done nothing to alleviate the problems.
Treliving gambled on Martin Jones and Simon Benoit and got lucky, but how much you can rely on either player, even in the most optimistic terms, remains to be seen. The Leafs have a better record than they deserve (they enter the break 11th overall by points-percentage and 18th by expected-goals percentage).
They also have several glaring lineup holes.
They get no production out of the left side of their lineup.
They have no depth.
Their blue-line is not very physical, and it's below average at moving the puck.
Their bottom-six is terrible, and they are overpaying a whole bunch of players. The GM had a terrible off-season, but he was new and we can cut him some slack - if he has a good month between now and the Trade Deadline.
Otherwise, he's on track to be the worst GM since John Ferguson JR, and that evaluation includes Dave Nonis. Tough company to keep, but this doesn't have to be his legacy.
All Treliving has to do is follow this list and he'll make the Toronto Maple Leafs into a Cup Contender.
What the Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Win the Stanley Cup
A Franchise Goalie : You can win the Cup without one, but you have a better chance if you have a franchise goalie.
The best goalie the Leafs have had in a decade is Freddie Andersen, and frankly, it hasn't worked out going with B-level guys. It makes the team too reliant on the offense. I think the Leafs should go all-in to trade for a star goalie.
Admittedly there aren't likely to be many options here, and this is a classic "easier said than done" situation, but they at least have to try.
A top-line Left Winger: Matthew Knies is a great prospect, but he's not ready for a 1st line role. Eventually, the Leafs will be glad to have him, but for now they need help.
After having Michael Bunting and Zach Hyman in that role for the last six or so years, the Leafs are spoiled. Those guys made almost no money, and once you put them with Matthews and Marner they became franchise level players themselves (at least 5v5).
That can't be matched or topped, but a star winger is a much needed addition. Knies on the third line after a potential star first liner and Tyler Bertuzzi would be incredible depth.
What Else the Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Win the Stanley Cup
A top-pairing defender: Much like the Franchise-level Goalie, this is hard to come by.
If you look around the league, a lot of the best defenders - Adam Fox, Dougie Hamilton, Devon Toews - were traded at one point. It's sufficiently rare, however, that you can count of first rounders going for guys like Chris Tanev and Sean Walker, so I am not expecting miracles.
The thing I don't want the Leafs to do is overpay for a formerly good player who will be insanely expensive compared to what they will bring to the table. Players like Adam Larson, Colten Parayko and Chris Tanev fit this bill. Not that they're necessarily bad players, but considering their cost and upside its just not worth it.
A Third Line Centre : I know a lot of people love Max Domi, but the Leafs weren't able to win the Cup with Ryan O'Reilly as their third line centre, and ROR to Domi is a drop off akin to going from 4K TV to 1986 Toshiba floor model.
It's unfortunate that O'Rielly was injured a lot for his time in Toronto and that the Leafs ran into an insanely hot goalie, because the 1-2-3 combo of number-once centres is still the best way to assemble a team in today's NHL.
A Trimming of the Fat : All 0f this wishlist can be made into a reality by moving out high priced talent that isn't giving back any value for the cap space. Ryan Reeves, David Kampf, Ilya Samsonov and TJ Brodie combine to make almost $12 million dollars.
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That is a good thing, because the core of this team plus about half of the other players make up the main part of a potentially awesome hockey team, and if these guys can be swapped for players making similar money but actually delivering the goods, then a Stanley Cup is would become a distinct possibility.