The Toronto Maple Leafs have to overcome too many bad decisions to be contenders

The Toronto Maple Leafs have made too many bad decisions and won't be able to overcome them, regardless of the insane amount of talent on their current roster.

There are those out there who are going to say that I should cheer for a different team. That I should write for a different team, that I'm too negative, that I'm biased against the team for firing Kyle Dubas, or that I just generally want the Toronto Maple Leafs to fail.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't care who runs the team, as long as they do a good job. I hope they win, because I am a huge fan of the Leafs. Always have been, always will be. I would rather they win the Cup while making moves that I criticized rather than fail to win the Cup while making moves that I agree with. I would never, ever cheer against them just so I could say I was right.

With that said, here are some thoughts I have on the verge of the 2024-25 season, and which I hope are 100% wrong.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have to overcome too many bad decisions to be contenders

My one true hope is that the Leafs fail upwards l ike the 2018 Washington Capitals. It could happen! My other hope - less realistic - is that I'm wrong about everything that follows.

Here is why I don't think the Leafs will have a very good season and struggle to make the playoffs. These are mistakes they won't be able to overcome.

1. They fired the wrong guy. Sheldon Keefe is just coming into his own as an NHL coach. His three superstars all battled injury and John Tavares was thrust into a defense-only role, his GM sat out the trade deadline and forced him to play Ilya Samsonov in the playoffs. Keefe still somehow got the team to grind it's way to an OT loss in game seven.

Keefe will win the Jack Adams in New Jersey and finally get the credit that luck denied him in Toronto

2. Too much money, term invested on a blue-line that is stupidly obsessed with size.

The Leafs, assuming the McCabe rumours are true, are going to have the NHL's oldest, most average, lowest upside blue-line locked in long term. Their obsession with size over puck-moving is ill advised and regressive.

3. Bad decisions all over the place.

Whether it's not using Liljegren in the top four, sending Easton Cowan back to junior (which I am assuming they will do), signing Max Pacioretty, not sticking with Nylander at centre, signing Hakanpaa, not getting a top goalie, using Domi at centre, firing Keefe, not utilizing the trade market, or overpaying geezers like OEL and Tanev, the Leafs just can't hope to overcome a GM/President who get it wrong nearly every single time.

4. Hiring a new boss above the guys currently running the show never, ever works out for those who were here first.

5. No Top Goalie, No Third Line Centre, No Elite Defenseman

It's possible you could win the Cup if one of these things was missing, but not all three. The Leafs have, at best, the 15th best blue-line, because, at best, that is where you could rank Tanev (generiously) if you were ranking the best defenseman alive. Stars drive success in the NHL and not having one on the blue-line is a team killer.

Woll/Stolarz could work out wonderfully, and many people are assuming it will. I hope it does. But I think when you have a Marner/Matthews combo in their primes, the easiest thing to do would be to pair them with a top goalie and go from there. The Leafs were really short-sighted here and its going to cost them.

Not pursing a centre, and then only using Nylander at C for one pre-season game is typically Leafy, and so dumb. Kampf and Domi are too one dimensional and nothing about Holmberg suggests he should be a 3C on a contender. The Leafs are woefully thin at centre, and lack stars in net and on the blue-line. This is just too much to overcome all at once.

6. Mitch Marner is unsigned.

This is perhaps the stupidest decision in franchise history. Marner can't be traded, so either they lose him for nothing, or he explodes and costs them even more money. If Marner struggles they won't dare sign him, so how exactly is this going to work?

I am sorry, i hate being so negative, but this team is poorly run and has made an incredible mess out of what should be an amazing season. With Knies, Robertson, Woll and Liljegren all on the roster and ready to breakout alongside a whole bunch of superstars, this should be the Leafs best chance to win.

Unfortubnately, they needed a 3C, a top D and an elite goalie and they went oh-for.