The Toronto Maple Leafs Massive Baggage Prevents People From Seeing the Truth

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup since 1967.

That's a long time, but it's made worse by the fact that the Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the only teams that hasn't at least made it to the Stanley Cup Finals since then.

Every other Original Six has a Stanley Cup since expansion. Most of the teams that have come into existence since then have done it too.

The Leafs don't even have an Art Ross, Vezina or Norris Trophy during this time. And of course, they have only made it out of the first round once since 2004. They even once went without making the playoffs between two NHL Lockouts.

And of course there is the fact that they haven't made it past the second round for the last eight years add a lot of bags to the already grotesque amount of overall baggage.

The Toronto Maple Leafs Massive Baggage Prevents People From Seeing the Truth

The Leafs baggage is undisputed, but what most people don't realize is that it's hiding what should be a very obvious truth: This is a team on the verge of being great.

All that losing? It sucks, but it builds character. You don't learn to win, you learn to fail. The Leafs are going to be awesome because the hard lessons and the built up character from their core will be augmented by the great timing of their Second Wave.

The Second Wave is the Leafs group of prospects who are now ready to become stars in their own right and whose ability to contribute on cheap, team-friendly contracts gives the team a wide open window of contention.

It's hard to see with all the recent losing, but this is a team that is just about to do amazing things.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander represent a three-player core that is as good as its possible to get.

Adding to these three players are Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Bobby McMann, Pontus Homberg, Easton Cowan, Fraser Minton, Roni Hirvonen, Mikko Kokkonen, Topi Niemella, Timothy Liljegren and Joseph Woll.

Some of these guys won't make it, but most of them are going to be playing huge roles on the Leafs next season. If they get Domi and Beruzzi back on cheap deals (if they are too much they have to go) the Leafs will be crazy deep and the timing here will give them a lot of cap room to fill out the back end of the roseter with the star goalie and defenseman they need.

I really believe that if any other team in the NHL had Knies/Woll/Cowan/Robertson to go with Matthews/Marner/Nylander that people would be extremely high on that team and it's future prospects.

Imagine that situation without the Leafs baggage.....you see what I mean?

It's going to be great. Don't lose faith. The easy answer is to throw Marner's carcass to the wolves of social media like a bunch of cowards. The right thing to do is power through with what you know is a great team.

Add a top goalie and a top defenseman to this roster and look out.