The Toronto Maple Leafs had a pretty uneventful summer after declaring that "everything was on the table" at an end of season press conference.
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost last spring for the 8th time in the Auston Matthews Era, having won just a single playoff series over the course of their best player's career to date. Fans, the media, the team and the players were universally frustrated over their iinability to parlay the longest stretch of competitive hockey in the 100 year history of the franchise into any kind of meaningful post-season success.
It was assumed that this would lead to some major changes, but due mostly to a series of no-trade clauses and a management group that appears paralyzed in the face of taking risks, the Leafs barely did anything.
Their entire summer consisted of almost exclusively superficial changes. The Leafs changed coaches and captains and added a defensive defenseman to the roster.
The 3 biggest problems facing the Toronto Maple Leafs
They also brought in a back-up goalie and signed some depth players, but they did not make any changes to the top of the roster, nor did they make any significant additions beyond Chris Tanev, who came at the cost of Tyler Bertuzzi and is therefore hard to consider a major upgrade.
What the Leafs did not do was signficantly improve their depth scoring, increse the number of star players on the roster, add an elite defender, third line centre, or star goalie to their team.
To be fair, Anthony Stolarz does seem like a great signing, but he's also only played six games in a Leafs uniform, so we can't even say it was a successful move quite yet.
Depending on how last night's game went, the Leafs are either 5-5 or 4-6, neither of which consitutes the kind of start they were hoping for. I wrote before the season started that they would need to overcome too many obstacles to truly contend this year, and I haven't seen any reason to change my mind. (some info puckpedia.com).
Here are the three main problems facing the Toronto Maple Leafs