With four weeks until the NHL Trade Deadline, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving needs to prioritize what the team needs to improve.
As he has failed as the man behind the Toronto Maple Leafs, I feel it is important that we rank what the team needs mostly heading towards a playoff march.
The most important and obvious moves are what won't happen and that is replacing management which includes Treliving, President Brendan Shanahan and coach Sheldon Keefe.
The only way that happens is if the Leafs fail this season and the incoming President of MLSE fires Shanahan and starts over.
Ranking the Deadline Needs of the Toronto Maple Leafs
So what is most important to the club? Is it acquiring a defenseman? Maybe a goalie? Or how about a forward of some sort? Here we list the rankings of what needs the most improvement.
5. Top Six Left Winger
The biggest free agent signing this past summer was left winger Tyler Bertuzzi after he was signed to a one-year deal at $5.5 Million.
Bertuzzi has been stapled to either Auston Matthews or John Tavares for nearly the entire season and has averaged just under 16-minutes a night. With more than enough opportunities to make Chris Kunitz jealous, Bertuzzi has not worked out thus far.
The team was relying on Bertuzzi to be more of the 30-goal scorer from 2021-22 and not the eight goal scorer he was from last year. Unfortunately, he appears to be more of the ladder as he has just six goals through 47 games and only one goal since November 28 spanning over 28 games.
While it is a priority to get better in the top six, I am curious to see how he does once the playoffs come around. He made the tournament for the first time in his career last season and collected ten points in the seven-game series loss he had as a Boston Bruin.
There are more important priorities the club needs to fix and wasting an asset on improving this position may be a waste if that can't deal with a different area first.