The Toronto Maple Leafs 2023-24 season ended with an overtime loss to the Boston Bruins in game seven, which seems like how about 90% of Leafs seasons end.
In reality, the Toronto Maple Leafs have only faced the Bruins four times in recent memory, even though it seems like more.
There was a lot of disappointment when the Leafs went down, but I actually thought they did alright. Considering that Mich Marner shouldn't have been playing on his ankle, which was sprained near the end of the seaosn, and that both Nylander and Matthews missed time in the series with injury and illness.
Beyond those excuses, the Leafs GM basically sat out the Trade Deadline, adding only useless depth pieces and not improving the team at all. It was a pathetic performance that should have ended his tenure as GM, but didn't.
Treliving also failed to add a starting goalie to a team incredibly desperate for one, and that, more than anything else, is what cost the Leafs. Though fans were upset, the reality is that by taking Boston to game seven, they actually did better than expected.
I wouldn't call the season a success, however. From the time the team's ownership decided to keep Shanahan over Kyle Dubas, pretty much everything that happened, outside of drafting Easton Cowan, was a failure.
With that said, here are the numbers from the Toronto Maple Leafs 2023-24 season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs 2023-24 Season By the Numbers
1 - first round picks untraded. Conteding teams aren't supposed to hold onto picks, and this unused currancy easily could have given the Leafs the microscopic push they need to hit the second round.
3rd - in the Division. A lousy finish that means the team has to battle the entire way through the playfofs uphill. Failing to address the blue-line or the goaltending in-season prevented the Leafs - who were the best team of the second half of the season until Mitch Marner was injured - from reaching their potential.
46 wins - 55 led the NHL, so that's the goal.
3 playoff wins - 16 is what you need.
200 goals - that led the NHL in 5v5 scoring.
168 - goals against at 5v5, 19th in the NHL.
24th - the Leafs overall ranking in 5v5 save-percentage. They were the highest scoring even-strength team, but gave a lot of it back by having some of the worst goaltending in the NHL.
7th - 7th overall in Expected Goals Percentage.
That means the Leafs should have been approximately the seventh best team. (stats naturalsstattrick.com).
10th overall - where they actually finished. As the best goal scoring team at 5v5, and the 24 best goaltending, this is a decent enough finish, but they should have been a bit better.
Considering they scored the most in the regular season and the least in the playoffs, I don't think it takes a degree in statistics to understand that filling your roster with one dimensional defensive players at the trade deadline was a mistake. The blue-line had four of the worst puck-movers in the entire NHL (Brodie, Benoit, Edmundson, Lyubushkin) and it really hurt their ability to score.
13th - the Leafs ranking in power-play goals for. Though they converted at 24% and finished 7th in conversion rate. This is simply not good enough for their roster, and don't even get me started on the abomination that went 1/23 in the Playoffs.
Ironically, the Toronto Maple Leafs fans complained for years under Kyle Dubas that the team wasn't tough enough or good enough at defense, but under Brad Treliving the Leasf were the most one-dimensional they have been since drafting Auston Matthews.
The Leafs added a GM who constantly talked about "snot" and "playing heavy" but this turned out to be nothing but superficial nonsense. The Leafs were more offensive and less defensive than they ever were under Dubas.
100% - how much better of a job Brad Treliving has to do in order to avoid being mentioned in the future alongside Gord Stellick and John Ferguson Jr.