Stanley Cup Playoffs 2018: Toronto Maple Leafs time to win is now

The Toronto Maple Leafs are entering the Stanley Cup Playoffs 2018 with what could be the team’s strongest roster for the foreseeable future

For the second consecutive season, the young Toronto Maple Leafs have made the postseason at a time the club needs to make the most of their playoff opportunity. Life will drastically change when Toronto’s season comes to an end as the salary cap is set to force a roster shakeup. The Leafs must win now during the Stanley Cup Playoffs 2018.

All season, the Maple Leafs have been loaded offensively. The club has three lines with their own 30-goal scorer. However, one of the 30-goal scorers, James van Riemsdyk, is set to become an unrestricted free agent at season’s end. Toronto is unlikely to have enough space under the salary cap to keep him.

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Along with van Riemsdyk, the winger’s center for the majority of his time in Toronto, Tyler Bozak, is also set to become an unrestricted free agent. Those two players have gone from the team’s best line when Phil Kessel wore the blue and white to a third-line depth role. This is due to the emergence of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander.

Despite being considered the third line, Bozak and van Riemsdyk’s contributions have been key to the team’s success. The depth offense the two provide has acted like a safety net while helping the Maple Leafs win games when the team’s younger players have been in slumps.

The two also play on Toronto’s top power-play unit. This season, the Maple Leafs earned the second-best power play percentage in the league at nearly 25 percent. Only the Pittsburgh Penguins with their impressive firepower were better during the regular season.

Unfortunately for the Maple Leafs, given the new contracts and significant raises they’ll have to give Matthews, Marner, and Nylander, it’s likely Bozak and van Riemsdyk are about to play their final games in Toronto.

Another player set to become an unrestricted free agent is Leo Komarov. Although he isn’t as offensively gifted as Bozak and van Riemsdyk, he plays an underrated defensive role. Komarov is a versatile grinder who is relied on to kill penalties. He can also stand in front of the net on the power play and drive opposing goaltenders crazy.

If someone were to look up grit or sandpaper in the dictionary, they’d likely see Komarov as he often leads the team in hits. He isn’t afraid of going into the corners to win puck battles and simply does the little things needed to succeed that often go unnoticed.

The loss of Komarov won’t grab the same attention created by Bozak or van Riemsdyk’s departure but it will be noticeable in next season’s lineup.

For a team that had so much offensive depth, the Maple Leafs will soon lose an entire line’s worth of players. They’ll likely be forced to fill the losses from within the organization given the limited salary cap available after the trio of sophomores get inked to new contracts.

With such a big hole set to blow through the lineup prior to next season, the 2017-18 playoffs become that much more important. Toronto simply won’t have the forward depth anywhere close to what they’ll ice against the Boston Bruins in game one of their series. It’s the type of forward depth capable of seeing any line become responsible for a victory.

Some will criticize the team’s suspect defense as to why they can’t succeed in the playoffs but with this group of forwards and Frederik Andersen between the pipes it all balances out. Just look at Pittsburgh’s back-to-back Stanley Cups for reasons to believe how strong forwards and a stronger goaltender can make up for average defenders.

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After all, this is a group with three 60-point producers, three 30-goal scorers, a career 500-goal scorer, two defensemen with 50 points, and a goalie that just set a franchise record with 38 wins.

The time is now for the Maple Leafs to make a run to the Stanley Cup Finals because otherwise their greatest opponent won’t be faced in a seven-game series. It’ll be faced in a financial battle against the NHL’s salary cap.

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