It's been a streaky season for the Toronto Maple Leafs - sometimes they play and look like the 2025 Stanley Cup Champions, and sometimes they look like a really bad team.
But things have worked out this season, as the Toronto Maple Leafs find themselves atop the Atlantic Division, 2nd place in the entire conference, and 5th in the NHL.
With one of the top forward groups in the league, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander in their primes, as well as a dynamic goaltending tandem, and their best chance to win their division in quite some time, going all-in at the deadline this season is a no-brainer.
Will they make a splash and acquire a big-name player? We will wait and see.
The Toronto Maple Leafs Need to go All in This Season
Reason 1: A Loaded Forward Group
The Leafs core-four have all had productive seasons, and while Auston Matthews hasn't been his usual MVP-level standard this year, he's played well through injuries, and is currently riding a six-game point streak.
Matthew Knies and Bobby McMann have given the Leafs some much-needed scoring from within, and while a legit third-line centre is still needed, the forward group is nearly perfect.
Reason 2: Actual Reliable Goaltending
The Leafs tandem of Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz have become fan favourites and have given the team two strong goalies both capable of stealing games.
The Leafs sit 6th in the NHL in SV%, and for the first time in a long time, Toronto's goaltending is a strength, not a weakness.
Reason 3: An Easier Path to the Finals
The Leafs have been favoured in many playoff series before and still managed to lose, but this season, the path to the finals may be their easiest in a while.
Since Washington won in 2017-18, every Eastern Conference Champion has been a member of the Leafs division, and four of the six President's Trophy winners were also Atlantic Division members.
The two years it wasn't, the eventful Stanley Cup Champion was another division rival
The Leafs have forever been in a tough division, but now look like the favourites to win it this year, and the lone team ahead of them in the conference, Washington, has not won a playoff series since that 2018 season.
To be fair, all of Washington, Carolina, Florida, and even Tampa or New Jersey, would not be easy playoff opponents for the Leafs. But this year they actually have a chance at a high playoff seed, and they need to make the most of it.
Going all-in for a legit top defenseman, one who is a bit younger than the majority of their blue-line, like a Noah Dobson or Bowen Byram, would be ideal. Will it happen? No idea. GM Brad Treliving has been fairly reserved on the trade front in the past two years since the Matthew Tkachuk trade.
But if the Leafs are going to win the Stanley Cup this year, he'll likely need to make a big move at this Trade Deadline.