The Toronto Maple Leafs, leading into the All-Star break, have been dealing with a number of issues in spite of having former Hart Trophy winner Auston Matthews on a 70-goal pace and newly-signed winger William Nylander having a career year. The Leafs were in the top three in the Atlantic Division, but the combination of Detroit getting red-hot, Tampa finding their footing with Vezina winner Andrei Vasilevskiy returning, and Toronto playing barely over .500 (6-5-1) since the end of December finds them holding onto an Eastern Conference playoff spot by their fingernails.
The Leafs have had to rely heavily on veteran goalie Martin Jones, who was signed as insurance behind youngster Joseph Woll and veteran Ilya Samsonov. Woll suffered a high-ankle sprain in early December, and Samsonov has struggled all season to the point that he was demoted to the AHL in early January for a mental reset. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported earlier this month that the Leafs investigated the goaltender market after Woll’s injury and that the asking price bordered on extortion.
After getting Matthews and Nylander signed to contract extensions since taking over from deposed Kyle Dubas in May, Leafs GM Brad Treliving is said to be taking a more realistic approach to addressing Toronto’s roster imperfections. Dubas sacrificed future assets in deals with Chicago and St. Louis prior to last year’s trade deadline for forwards Ryan O’Reilly, Noel Acciari, Sam Lafferty, and defensemen Luke Schenn and Jake McCabe. O’Reilly, Acciari, and Schenn helped Toronto snap their 19-year playoff series drought but left via unrestricted free agency last summer. Lafferty was traded for cap reasons to Vancouver, leaving McCabe as the only player remaining. Combined with draft picks dealt to Seattle in 2022 for veteran Mark Giordano, the Leafs are without their 2025 first-round pick and second-rounders in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
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Besides their goaltending issues, the Leafs have long had a defensive corps in need of bolstering and do not have much offensive firepower outside of their core-four forward group to be considered a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. Treliving with limited assets and nearly no cap space appears to be out of the rental market prior to the March 8th trade deadline and is said to only be willing to make moves for players with term on their contracts.
With those limitations, Toronto may be downshifting from a win-now to a win-soon posture and will not be a big newsmaker in the pre-deadline rumor mill.