The Toronto Maple Leafs are a better team than they were before the NHL Trade Deadline, but they're unfortunately not going to win a Stanley Cup this year.
It's a real shame that the Toronto Maple Leafs are wasting the prime years of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander. These are four of the best players in franchise history, yet when it's all set and done, it will probably only result in one playoff round victory.
As we near the end of the core-four (Tavares and Marner are UFA's this summer), the team continues to be far too risk adverse, and they appear to be almost afraid to make a monster move under Brad Treliving's leadership. Although the team only won one playoff round with Kyle Dubas, I admired his risk-taking.
He traded prospects and draft picks that turned into future NHLers, for current players who would help thier roster immediately (example: Sean Durzi for Jake Muzzin trade). Although the Leafs would love to have Durzi on their team now, they knew Muzzin would help the now.
For some reason, Treliving has been afraid to make these types of trades. I know he traded a future first-round pick for Scott Laughton and acquired Brandon Carlo for Fraser Minten, but this isn't a Stanley Cup winning move, compared to his division rivals. The Panthers acquried Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, while the Lightning got Yanni Gourde and Oliver Bjorkstrand.
Carlo and Laughton are really good additions, but they are not significant enough deals to beat Tampa Bay and Florida.
Leafs Are Better With Laughton & Carlo, But It's Not Enough
Whether it was Noah Dobson, Brock Nelson or Mikko Rantanen, the Leafs should have traded for this type of talent, because that would have shown the hockey world that they're a serious contender in the Eastern Conference. However, more importantly, they should have showed Auston Matthews that they're a real contender.
The same thing applies in Colorado, as the Avalanche made a number of splashes, to the delight of Nathan MacKinnion. When you have a really good team and have superstar talent, you need to do everything you can to give yourself a chance to win. If the Leafs are going to continue to be content with mediocrity, why would Matthews ever re-sign in three years when his contract is up?
The Leafs are continuing to waste a really good season when it wouldn't take a ton to make a difference. All they need is a top-four defenseman and winger, which they easily could have traded for if they shipped out a top prospect.
Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo make this roster better, but they are not deep enough to compete with the Panthers and Lightning, so this is another disappointing Trade Deadline. We should all look back at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline and be thankful with how Kyle Dubas played it, because if he was still in charge, I promise you that this year's deadline would have been different and the team would have came out of it, as a Stanley Cup favorite.