The NHL Trade Deadline is less than one week away, so will the Toronto Maple Leafs make a huge splash, or let another year of Auston Matthews' prime slip away?
The Toronto Maple Leafs are a good team, but there's no way you can convince me that they're a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Sure, Anthony Stolarz or Joseph Woll could turn into Patrick Roy and single handedly guide the Leafs to a Stanley Cup Finals, but I wouldn't put my money on it.
A few weeks ago, it looked like the Leafs were bound for their first Atlantic Division title in decades (sorry 2020-21 doesn't count), but the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers are up to their old tricks. In the past 10 games, the Panthers are 7-3-0, while the Lightning are 8-1-1 with a seven-game winning streak.
With roughly 20 games left in the season, this is crunch-time for the Leafs to try to win the Division. They cannot afford to play the Lightning or Panthers again in the First Round, and certainly can't afford to do it without home-ice advantage. The worst case scenario would be to finish third in the Atlantic, so they need to do everything they can to win the division, or at the very worst, finish second.
Although the Lightning are aging, and lost Steven Stamkos last summer, I will always favour them in a playoff series over Toronto because they have Victor Hedman and Andrei Vasilevskiy. After a down-year last season, Vasilevskiy should once again be in the conversation for the Vezina Trophy (although he won't win it).
As for the Panthers, how are the Leafs suppposed to feel confident about beating a team that has represented the Eastern Conference in the past two Stanley Cup Finals and beat them in the playoffs two years ago? The Lightning just went to three Finals, so there's no reason to believe the Panthers can't do the same.
So if you're the Leafs, how can you seriously look at your roster and think that you can go to battle against the Panthers and Lightning in a seven-game series? Sure, the Leafs did beat the Lightning in a series a few years ago, but they added multiple pieces at the NHL Deadline to combat Tampa Bay, plus the Lightning had just went to three Cup Finals.
Leafs Need To Make Huge Trade at Deadline
In my opinion, there was true fatigue from the Lightning dressing room in that series, plus the Leafs had to win three overtime games to get through that series. If the puck bounced one different direction during that series, the Lightning easily could have won, as it was a very tight battle.
If GM Brad Treliving wants to continue to be employed by the Leafs next season, he needs to make a big splash at the Deadline and I'm not talking about Bryaden Schenn and Scott Laughton. The Leafs need to acquire Mikko Rantanen, Noah Dobson, Brock Boeser and/or Brock Nelson and improve this roster immediately.
I don't want to hear about Jani Hakanpää or Calle Jarnkrok coming back from injury as the Leafs BIG Deadline move, but instead need to see a legitimate name to help bolster the defense and/or depth of the offense.
I feel like I've said the same thing for the past few years, but this is a make-or-break season for the Leafs. When the 2025-26 season starts in October, that will be Year 10 of Matthews and if the team can't show that they can even make a Conference Final by then, it will be extremely dissapointing.
With this potentially being the last year of Marner and Tavares, and only three years guaranteed with Matthews, this is crunch-time. Organizations don't typically get this solid of a core together for this long, so the Leafs need to go nuts at the Deadline and give themselves the best chance at winning.
I don't care if the team has zero prospects in the system next year or zero draft picks for the next decade. This is the time to make a splash and try to win a Stanley Cup, so get on the phone Mr. Treliving, and let's make a deal!!