Three Questions Surrounding the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a month into the 2024-25 season and these are the three biggest questions surrounding the team.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have had yet another average start to their season.
Through 11 games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a 6-4-1 record, and it is appearent that their team is good because they have an incredible core of superstars, but that almost all the problems that have plauged them over the last several years - starting on time, playing down to opponents, depth scoring, special teams - are still problems.
The Leafs recently traded Timothy Liljegren, and are capped out but desperate for upgrades at centre-ice and on the blue-line. On the bright side, their goaltending looks amazing and they have a winning record despite the fact that Auston Matthews hasn't produced much yet.
With a record of around .500 through their first eleven games, the team has some questions to answer as they head into the season's second month.
1. Why Has Matthew Knies Not Signed an Extension?
There have been rumours that Matthew Knies' camp and the Maple Leafs have had preliminary discussions about a contract extension. Knies will be an RFA at the end of this season and is off to a hot start, playing on the top line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.
He has embraced the worker part of this line and has four goals in his last five games, with a total stat line of five goals, one assist in 10 games this season.
Knies has also been placed on the Maple Leafs top powerplay unit since they have gone too two balanced units rather, than one loaded up. They have placed Matthews, Marner, Knies, Paccioretty, Rielly on PP1 with Tavares, Nylander, McMann, Domi, Ekman-Larsson on the other.
Knies' ice time has jumped nearly four minutes (17:13) compared to last season (13:41). He has looked like the perfect fit on the top line thus far and will only get better with time. With 25-goal potential this season, Knies' price will only go up; Treliving and the Maple Leafs organization should lock him up sooner rather than later.
2. Can Anthony Stolarz be the No. 1 Goalie?
Anthony Stolarz has been incredible to start the season. A mysterious injury to Joseph Woll just before the regular season started has left the Maple Leafs no choice to turn to Stolarz and he has been great.
A record of 4-2-1 with a 2.45 GAA, .916 SV%, and 2.8 goals saved above expected ranks 10th amongst starters in the league, above names such as Jeremy Swayman, Juuse Saros and Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The question is whether he can play 45-plus games in the NHL. Stolarz has been a backup for the entirety of his career and has never played more than 28 games in a season. That can be quite the adjustment for a 30-year-old goaltender who hasn't played as a starter since 2019-20 in the AHL.
An ideal situation for the Maple Leafs would to have Joseph Woll fully healthy all year so they can split the starts, similar to what Ullmark and Swayman did in Boston. But with Woll's health concerns, I don't believe you can rely on that as a main option.
It will be interesting to see what the Toronto Maple Leafs do as we progress later into the season, and if they start to play one of Stolarz or Woll as their number one goalie.
3. Is Nick Robertson going to get a chance?
After a great pre-season where Nick Robertson made the team out of training camp for the first time in his career, his role has already been diminished. He has played nine of the ten games this season, none in the top-six, and he was healthy scratched against the Winnipeg Jets.
Robertson has just one goal this season but he has provided scoring chances when he plays and has very good on-ice numbers. He is third on the Leafs in individual shot-attempts per 60 minutes, and he is creating more individual dangerous scoring chances per minute than Mitch Marner, Max Domi, and Bobby Mcmann.
Robertson hasn't been getting a ton of ice-time and has had a hard time scoring actual goals, but both Matthew Knies and Bobby McMann started the season hot, and recently Max Pacioretty has been great, which means it's hard for Robertson to get minutes - the Leafs are just a deep team at the wing (and this is a good thing, as internal competition is only going to make them better).
Robertson's on-ice numbers show that he should be in the lineup and that he likely deserves more opportunities, not less: 54% Corsi, 53% shots-for, 51% scoring chances, 52% dangerous chances, 66% goals-for, and 50.13% xGoals. (naturalstattrick.com).
Berube has backed him up at points this season, but the healthy scratch against Winnipeg shows us more how deep the Leafs are at the wing position than anything bad about Robertson. But it also brings back the idea of trading him and seeing him reach his potential with another organization.
Robertson has played well enough to stay in the lineup, but the lack of production is concerning. Although, to be fair, complaining about the production of a player who has played almost half of his minutes with Simon Benoit seems unfair.
Eventually he is going to have to score to stay on this team, even with the solid numbers. The Leafs would be smart to facilitate this by playing him with Nylander and putting him on the power-play.
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With the recent trade of Timothy Liljegren, it will be interesting to see if Robertson is next since Calle Jarnkrok and Conor Dewar are close to returning from injury.