We have hit the quarter-mark of the 21st century so let's look back at the last 25 years in Toronto Maple Leafs history.
The last 25 years of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey may not have resulted in a championship, but it's been a lot of fun. From 2000-2004, the organization had lots of playoff success, before a tough stretch from 2005-2016. However, since 2016 the team has yet to miss the playoffs, which is very impressive.
As we look back at the past 25 years, there have been a lot of great players to dawn the blue-and-white so let's look at the quarter-century team starting with the fowards.
Forwards
First Line: Darcy Tucker - Auston Matthews - Mitch Marner
Second Line: Gary Roberts - Mats Sundin - William Nylander
Third Line: Ryan O'Reilly - John Tavares - Alex Mogilny
Fourth Line: James van Reimsdyk - Nazem Kadri - Phil Kessel
Extras: Zach Hyman, Tie Domi
Imagine how good the Leafs would have been over the past 10 years if they had Darcy Tucker or Gary Roberts playing alongside either Matthews, Marner, or Nylander? Those two players might have scored 50 goals on a line with them.
Think about the second line of Sundin and Nylander? The two offensive stars from Sweden would have been one of the best duo's in hockey. As we move forwards the third line, although Ryan O'Reilly played a few games here, he's a former Conn Smythe winner and his impact was powerful in a short time. Mix him with another defensively sound forward and some scoring with Mogilny and that's an insane combo.
The fourth line was tough but those three players were the glue of Toronto's offense during a dark time and deserve the love. Kadri never should have left Toronto, while Kessel and JVR were top scorers. Just missing out on the main roster is Zach Hyman because his best days happened in Edmonton, while Domi's skill isn't good enough to crack the team, but he needs to be apart of it.
Defenseman
First paring: Bryan McCabe - Thomas Kaberle
Second paring: Morgan Rielly - Chris Tanev
Third pairing: Dion Phaneuf - Jake Muzzin
Extras: Dmitri Yushkevich, Francois Beauchemin
The one thing that was clear doing this exercise is the Leafs defense over the past 25 years has been terrible. If Bryan McCabe and Thomas Kaberle crack the first pairing, you know things haven't been great. They were fine players, but nobody on this list is a legitimate number-one defenseman, which is why the team has never won a Stanley Cup.
Morgan Rielly needs to crack this roster based on longevity and then Chris Tanev has been the best defensive defenseman Toronto has seen in decades. As for Dion Phaneuf, the former captain was very good at his peak, although he did struggle at times in Toronto. Additionally, Jake Muzzin was a fantastic addition before injuries hurt his career.
Goaltenders
Starting Goalie: Curtis Joseph
Back-Up Goalie: Ed Belfour
Third-String Goalie: Freddie Andersen
The early 2000s was a dream for Leafs goaltenders. Although Ed Belfour is the Hall-of-Fame, Curtis Joseph still gets the net for Toronto here as he hit is prime with the Leafs. Belfour was the back-end of his career, but still put up fantastic numbers.
As for the third-stringer, Andersen was an All-Star in Toronto and deserves some love for his tenure. He was a solid goaltender, but he was never someone who was loved like Belfour or Cujo.
As you can see, this Leafs roster over the past 25 years has been forward heavy, defensively impotent with some decent goaltending. If they could have found a way to improve their defense over the past half-century, we could have seen multiple championshps.