The Toronto Maple Leafs and the rest of the NHL wil soon open training camp in preperation for the 2024-25 NHL Seasoan.
With training camnp on the horizen, the internet is awash in predictions, rankings and roster evaluations. These, almost all of them, underrate the Toronto Maple Leafs roster.
I don't know if it's just familiarity breeding contempt mixed in with a long history of playoff disapointments, but what I do know is that the Leafs don't even seem to be considered one of the top teams by most people.
That is ridiculous. People just don't properly rate Matthews and Marner because of their inabilty - so far - to win in the playoffs. In fact though, the Leafs have two of the top ten players alive and in the NHL where star performance drives results, that is the most important thing a team could have.
There Are Zero NHL Teams With Better Rosters Than the Toronto Maple Leafs
I've been pretty critical of the Leafs summer activities because I don't think they take enough risks to seperate themselves from the pack, but that is only because I think with the right moves this team could be significantly better than any other team in the league.
But as is, I don't think anyone has a better roster. At least not signficicantly. The NHL has a salary cap and all the best teams have flaws. The Leafs have flaws, but there probably isn't a team in the league with a higher floor.
The Dallas Stars, New York Rangers and Florida Panthers seem to be the three main teams people list off as the best the NHL has to offer this year. A quick look at the Rangers and Stars rosters reveals that its only because of goaltending that these teams are ranked so highly.
Off all the teams with high-end forwards, Dallas, NYR and FLA are the only ones who also combined an elite goaile with an elite Norris Trophy candidate. The Leafs can't really counter with Tanev and Woll...at least not on paper, but the thing about the NHL is that goalies are so random that you can't really even include them in your evalutations.
When you take out the goalies, suddenly the Leafs look a lot better. If their blue-line is lacking in high-end potential, they blow Dallas, New York and Florida out of the water with their forwards because its not even really close. If Dallas and New York are better than the Leafs it's microscopically. As for Flroida they are the best team in the league and the Leafs are not far behind them, if they are behind them at all.
The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup and made the Finals twice in a row. They are clearly a good team, but there is also a lot of luck in doing what they did. Ultimately they won a coin flip to beat the Leafs two years ago, and were only 4 games better than the Leafs last year over 82 games The Leafs had to navigate the entire season around an Ilya Samsonov meltdown, so to only be within eight points shows how good the Leafs are.
If you compare the rosters, the recent standings, the tiny margins between each teams' respective playoff success, and how they played against each other, there is no reason to think the Panthers roster is better than Toronto's.
Florida also got worse this summer while the Leafs stayed the same or got better. Florida lost Montour in the off-season, they also lost Cousins, Tarasenko, Ekman-Larsson and their back-up goalie. They will have to deal with drop-offs from Forsling, Reinhart and Bobrovsky who won't be able to repeat career-best seasons.
If Florida is the best roster the NHL has to offer - and that's what the consensus seems to be - then the Leafs are Cup Contenders by virtue of having a better roster. The fact is, there are two players on the Leafs who are better than anyone on Florida - Matthews and Marner. That prety much equals out any other advantage Flodia has over Toronto.
But the Leafs also have a decent blue-line, high-end goalie potential, and the best top-six in hockey. The Leafs also have the possibility of matching a still in their prime group of superstars with a new group of young kids just coming into their own.
If the Leafs get big years from Matthew Knies, Joseph Woll and Easton Cowan then they will have one of the best teams in hockey. If Tanev, Riellly and Tavares maintain their skills and avoid an age-related decline, this could be a great team.
Last year's Cup Final was between the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers, two teams built similarly to the Leafs who have an equally good roster but just got a bit luckier. The Toronto Maple Leafs should be considered one of the NHL's top teams and a definite Cup Contender, since they have one of the NHL's best rosters.