Toronto Maple Leafs Bad Summer (and Constant Losing) Hides Great Potential

The Toronto Maple Leafs summer hasn't been that bad.

It's not that the Toronto Maple Leafs didn't improve, they did, it's that they did so in a very high-risk way while failing to meet the goals we assume they had before the summer began.

These goals were to: acquire a high-end goalie, improve on Pontus Holmberg at 3C, fix the blue-line and clear the dead-weight off the roster.

The Leafs have done one of those things, and they did it with insanely risky deals to very old and fragile UFA defensemen.

To their credit, they identified how stupid it was to ice a lineup devoid of puck moving defensemen when you have some of the most talented forwards in the NHL. We'll see how this works out.

Regardless of how you feel about the moves, the public at large isn't buying.

Early season previews at the Athletic saw no one on their panel picking the Leafs to win the Cup and the Vegas odds aren't very flattering.

Most people seem to see the Leafs as a playoff lock but a second tier contender.

Toronto Maple Leafs Bad Summer (and Constant Losing) Hides Great Potential

All those first round losses make for a very underrated team.

The Leafs - let's just assume they will be healthy all year - do have one of the NHL's very best rosters.

Ignoring the risks, Joseph Woll is a solid goalie primed for stardom. Chris Tanev is elite. The blue-line, especially if Topi Niemela forces their hand, and Timothy Liljegren taking a step, could be one of the best in the league.

The forwards are just flat-out awesome with a potential for inanity due to the high-upside of all their cheap deals.

The Core Four is awesome. Contract politics aside, it's the best four-forward group in hockey and no one is even close because Hyman is overrated now and Evander Kane is basically Max Domi but worse.

Add to them the potential - and cheap deals - of Bobby McMann, Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Easton Cowan and Fraswer Minten and you should start to be excited.

The Leafs could end up with nine impact forwards + Max Domi and his fantastic Auston-Matthews assisted potential.

And no one is really talking about this. It's hiding in plain site. Mitch Marner is going to break out in his ninth season, and Auston Matthews could feasably have ANOTHER level.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are primed for greatness....as they have been for nearly a decade. Just now, no one really cares or remembers or is excited about it.

Except me. I maintain that all eight years have been building towards something, that the losses only make them stronger and better, and that they have been 100% unlucky and 0% Flawed.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to surprise everyone. Except me.