Welcome To Maple Leafs: Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe Announced The Three New Signing…..
Welcome To Maple Leafs: Maple Leafs Head Coach Sheldon Keefe Announced The Three New Signing…..
If you’re banking on the Toronto Maple Leafs, goaltending to carry them to a Stanley Cup this season, you might want to reconsider.
Sure, crazy things happen in hockey, and you don’t necessarily need a superstar goalie to lift the Cup anymore. But let’s face it, having a top-tier netminder doesn’t hurt.
We’ve seen it time and again, from Andrei Vasilevskiy’s back-to-back Cups to underdogs like Aidin Hill and Jordan Binnington making history.
Now, I’m not saying Ilya Samsonov or Joseph Woll couldn’t surprise us all, but let’s not bet the farm on it. I’d rather put my faith in someone with a proven track record than cross my fingers and hope for a hot streak.
Especially in a season when John Tavares and Morgan Rielly are at the tail end of their primes, and Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander are at their absolute peaks.
Even if by some miracle one of these guys catches fire, it’s no guarantee of victory. Just ask any Leafs fan who’s watched great goalies get outplayed in the playoffs. It’s a cruel reality that in a seven-game series, anything can happen.
If I were Brad Treliving, I’d be pulling out all the stops to upgrade our goaltending this year.
Sure, it’s tough to swing a midseason trade for a goalie, but it’s not impossible. So, who could be the answer to our goaltending prayers?
READ MORE.
Breaking down Brad Treliving’s Trade Deadline History and why Maple Leafs fans should be concerned
The trade deadline is just a few days away and the Toronto Maple Leafs still have a couple of holes to fill in their lineup, if they want to be a serious Stanley Cup Contender.
Whether it be the defense or goaltending, the Toronto Maple Leafs will definitely have to address one, if not both, of these weak spots in the coming days.
Having both, Lybushkin and Simon Benoit in the starting lineup come day one of the playoffs is not ideal considering, they are both below-average puck movers and should be playing on the third pair.
Lybushkin is an okay 7th or 8th defenceman for a playoff run but he should not be Morgan Rielly’s or anyone else’s partner on day one of the playoffs.
But with Treliving’s trade deadline history, it is unlikely the Maple Leafs make trade that would move the needle before the deadline on March 8th.
While there are many players who would help the Leafs excell in the playoffs – players such as Noah Hanifin, Jake Guentzel and Juuse Saros – the Leafs are being linked to much smaller fish.
Given his so-so tenure up to this point, Leafs fans have a right to question whether Treliving is ultimately the man to run the team, but his past record at trade deadlines is not going encourage any of the doubters.
Let’s look into it.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are gearing up for the Trade Deadline on Friday, but early moves continue to pour in.
Just last week the Toronto Maple Leafs missed out on Chris Tanev, a move I was originally happy about.
My reasoning was that Tanev wasn’t good enough to be the Leafs main upgrade, and that their limited asests could be better spent. But then I saw what the Leafs spent on Ilya Lyubushkin and concluded that they should have just bit the bullet and paid the cost for Tanev since the difference between a 1st and a 3rd and a 3rd and a 6th is smaller than the difference between Tanev and Lyubushkin.
While the Leafs are yet to make any more moves, other teams in the NHL are getting in on the action early.
Trade Grades: 2 Potential Trades Come Off the Board for the Leafs
The first move is that the Minnesota Wild have re-signed Zach Bogosian. This is a pretty boring move, and it only affects the Leafs a little bit – they can no longer trade for Bogosian.
I didn’t want them to, and now they can’t. I feel the Leafs have more than enough defense-only one-dimensional players in their lineup and do not need any more. Bogosian was a Leaf a couple of years ago and didn’t really play all that well. I am happy to know he’s staying in Minnesota.
The big news of the evening is the trade by the Golden Knights for Anthony Mantha, aka Anthony Manthony.
Mantha has great numbers this year and the Knights made a great trade to pick him up tonight. Mantha is coming with a 50% retained cap-hit for just a second round pick and a fourth round pick.
The Knights get a player who is scoring a ton at 5v5 and who has the analytics to back it up. This is an A+ move for the Knights because they get an impact player at a massive discount and barely any cap hit.
I don’t even know how they consistantly do it, but they are an amazingly well run team. D- for the Capitals here because they definitely should have gotten more.
This is unfortunate for the Toronto Maple Leafs because I was sort of hoping they would land Mantha as an upgrade to their lineup. I don’t really think the Leafs need any wingers, but Mantha would be a solid upgrade over any of Nick Robertson, Calle Jarnkrok or Bobby McMann.
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