The NHL Trade Deadline is right around the corner, on March 7th 2025 and the Toronto Maple Leafs will of course be buyers, although, based on last year - who knows?
Last deadline, the first under GM Brad Treliving, the Toronto Maple Leafs completely failed their players and fans by refusing to trade for any impact players, while the teams around them were adding superstars like Jake Guentzel.
Treliving landed multiple pieces in the weeks leading up to the deadline like Ilya Lyubushkin, Joel Edmundson, Connor Dewar, and prospect Cade Webber. Not one of them impacted the team positively, and overall he basiclly just lit draft picks on fire for no reason.
Treliving's biggest failing, however, was sticking with Ilya Samsonov in net. This blew up in his face when an injured Joseph Woll forced Samsonov to play game seven, and the rest is history.
What Is the Toronto Maple Leafs Biggest Deadline Need?
Last year's trades did very little to move the needle and the team met a familiar fate of losing to the Boston Bruins in seven games in the first round. This time, the blame for the failure to advance landed at the feet of former head coach Sheldon Keefe, now with the New Jersey Devils.
According to naturalstattrick.com at 5-on-5 the Leafs rank 15th in terms of GF/60, but sixth in GA/60 (the per 60 adjusts for differences in games played). They are also getting outshot and out-chanced at even strength this season, ranking 18th in xGF% and 16th in CF%. Breaking these down, the team ranks 17th in CF/60 and 19th in CA/60, unsurprisingly they also rank 17th in xGF/60 and 19th in xGA/60. To put it simply, the Leafs are getting outshot and out chanced quite poorly.
If it is this bad, how is the team still so high in the standings? Well, the Leafs rank fourth in SV% and goaltending is hiding almost all of their flaws.
The Leafs are being largely held up by their stellar goaltending from Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz. Over the past 20 games, there has been a shift though, the team's defensive stats, including SV%, have seen a dip below league average, while the team's offensive stats have seen a boost to slightly above league average. Given the prevalence of injuries, it is tough to pinpoint an exact solution to the team's woes.
What Is The Team's Biggest Need?
Breaking it down by individual lines does add some context. Up front, the team seems to be in need of depth forwards, specifically in the middle and bottom-six.
On the back end, the Leafs needs help in many ways. The Leafs lack a number-one defenseman which means everyone is playing one slot too high up in the lineup and there is a depth issue. If the Leafs can add an elite defenseman, they wouldn't have to be too concerned about their depth, as Oliver Ekman-Larsson should be able to pair with just about anyone to form a solid third pairing.
The most popular archetype of player linked to the Maple Leafs are middle-six centers, which makes sense. On many nights, the Leafs have been without one or both of Matthews and Tavares, leading to Pontus Holmberg and David Kampf playing top-six minutes. In addition, the team has been forced to call up multiple Marlies forwards, even signing winger Alex Nylander to an NHL contract in order to fill out their lineup.
The Leafs are paper-thin at centre-ice and at this point they could use any kind of upgrade, but the reality is that they have limited assets and cap-space. Still, if they are creative they can improve their team, but the Leafs really need to add impact players - they can't just follow last year's (terrible) plan and waste draft picks on players who barely constitute an upgrade.
So, I feel we have identified that the Leafs are most in need of: A star defenseman and an impact forwward. If those are unataible, they should still try for a middle-six center, middle-six winger, bottom pair defender, and potentially a depth goaltender.
These are a lot of holes to fill, so the best thing to do is to make one very powerful upgrade and not worry about trying to fix every flaw on the roster.