Top 5 Burnings Questions for the Toronto Maple Leafs Heading into 2024-25

5. Can Auston Matthews Finally Bring His Talent to the Playoffs?

This is really all that matters.

The Leafs took Boston to the seventh game, in OT, as underdogs, with Samsonov in net, despite the fact that Auston Matthews brough almost nothing to the series.

If Matthews is even half of what he was in the regular season, the Leafs make it to the second round easily, and after that, who knows?

Unfortunately, Matthews was sick and only scored one goal in five games, while missing two. It's not his fault exactly, but it just sucks because obviously the Leafs had to get unlucky to lose that series.

Last year vs Florida, same thing. Matthews played great and posted insane peripheral stats, but he again wasn't scoring. Credit to Bobrovski for playing well, but everyone knew Matthews had some kind of wrist problem and wasn't able to shoot his best. This plauged him through the entire season where "only" scored 40 times in 70 games, which for him is basically a crap season.

In fact, Matthews has been injured or playing through injuries in three of the last four playoff years. I realize that this an excuse but excuses can also be reasons.

I guarantee the Leafs would have more playoff sucess to date if they had a healthier Matthews in the last four years.

When healthy, Matthews has flirted with a goal-per-game over the last four seasons. If the Leafs get that kind of production in the playoffs, they will have a very good chance of winning the Stanley Cup.

Unfortuantely, he hasn't even scored at a point-per-game, let alone a goal-per-game, in the playoffs so far. However, he's going to eventually be healthy in the playoffs one of these years.

Maybe it's this year?

How the Toronto Maple Leafs answer these five questions will go a long way in determining if they finally live up to their potential.

If Matthews is healthy in the playoffs, if the Leafs keep Marner and resolve his situation, if they get a strong showing from Woll, solve their centre-ice issues and are lucky enough to get a star turn from one of their young players, the 2024-25 season will be one to remember.