The Toronto Maple Leafs are slowly drifting toward mediocrity

Originally, I wanted to write on this topic a month or two ago, shortly after the Toronto Maple Leafs had hired Craig Berube. I was told to wait and see how the busiest points of the offseason played out for them before writing this.

In hindsight, I’m glad I did.

It’s not that I think the Leafs had a bad offseason by any means. I think it went okay, and while they didn’t make any egregiously bad moves, they did make a lot that could have been better. Whether it’s too much money or term on a contract, or just some uncertainty around the players brought in, I think the changes they made have just as much of a chance of going poorly as they do going well.
That’s the problem with the Leafs at this point in time: they seem to be trending towards mediocrity, both in terms of the on-ice product and how they manage the team off the ice. For a team that even at their peak saw weaknesses get exposed in the playoffs, drifting toward the murky middle of the league isn’t going to do them any favors.

And for a team whose salary cap strategy involves paying Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares and Morgan Rielly as much as they do, they need to be diligent with spending elsewhere, something that general manager Brad Treliving does not inspire the utmost confidence in.

For the record, this is not in reaction to the Leafs not moving on from Marner. While that’s largely been the move that Leafs fans have wanted to see, I’m not even going to pretend like I know what the Leafs should do there. Marner has consistently underperformed in the playoffs, so it does make sense to move on and try something new, but it also feels insane to trade a player who consistently produces 90 points and plays Selke-caliber defense. It just seems like a lose-lose situation.