The Toronto Maple Leafs failed to add an impact player at the NHL's trade deadline, but most media outlets seem fine with it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have a convenient scape-goat in their former GM, a young and innovative executive who the old-school Leafs Media detest, and since their current GM is a traditional hockey guy, he skates by without much in the way of criticism.
The Leafs played it safe, traded a ton of assets for marginal upgrades and will enter the playoffs with the third best roster in the NHL's toughest division.
It is impossible to believe that they couldn't have done better than Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo, and it's unacceptable that they didn't.
Media soft on Maple Leafs + Leafs Lose + Deadline another huge failure
The issue of cap space is an excuse, but not a real one. The Leafs could have paid teams to take Max Domi and David Kampf off their hands. They picked up a 5th rounder for Connor Dewar and Conor Timmins, which was nice, but that shows how moving out badly spent cap space is possible.
As for assets, people say they didn't have assets, but they did. The Leafs paid 2 first rounders and a top prospect to get Carlo and Laughton. They could have used all of that in one trade for a better player. which they supposedly tried to do with Rantanen. I like that they tried that, but when it didn't work, why not take that package to 30 other teams and get the defenseman you desperately need?
Ultimately, the Leafs failed to address their biggest need, which is a top-of-the-lineup puck-moving defenseman. Scott Laughton is not really an upgrade and the price they paid for him was bonkers.
In their first post-deadline game, they played Benoit and Myers. Max Domi played. Their blue-line struggled to drive possession and they lost. (all stats from naturalstattrick.com).
My whole life I've heard how the Toronto Media is so tough on the Leafs and on players, but honestly, I don't see it. The Leafs appear to have botched the Marner Situation beyond repair, they paid a ton of assets for minor upgrades, and are about to enter the playoffs as a minor Cup Contender in the toughest division in hockey.
Their GM and President had their jobs on the line and they have gone out with a whimper instead of a bang. I honestly can't beleive that with his job on the line, Brendan Shanahan goes out adding Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo.
The optimist could say this team was already better than the teams that added more players. I would say to that that anyone whose optimistic about the Toronto Maple Leafs is my hero, but likely not of sound mind.
The pessimest would say that this team is too dependant on goalies and that their best players have no history of standing up when it counts, and that managment made minor upgrades during a year when major upgrades were needed.
Just trying to add Rantanen does about as much for me as the Blue Jays trying to add Ohtani - the sentiment is nice but it only does so much. The Leafs could have gone big, but they didn't. They followed the same safe-low-risk approach that Brad Treliving is known for, and it did not pay off.
I hope the Leafs defy the odds and win, but the upside here is that if they don't, at least we won't have to put up with Brad Treliving any longer.