Toronto Maple Leafs Set To Begin Highly Anticipated Season

After a summer filled with great expectations, the Toronto Maple Leafs begin one of the most anticipated seasons in franchise history. 

The Toronto Maple Leafs are set to begin the club’s most anticipated season in over a decade as expectations have grown to Stanley Cup contender status.

Not since the 2003-04 season have the Maple Leafs entered a year with legitimate goals of competing for the Stanley Cup. As the puck gets set to drop on the 2018-19 season, Toronto has finally returned to the discussion of a team capable of lifting hockey’s greatest trophy.

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The Maple Leafs made one of the biggest moves of the offseason when the club signed unrestricted free agent John Tavares. This signing transformed Toronto from a good team continuing to develop into a legitimate championship contender. The Maple Leafs have the potential to ice the league’s best trio of centers while providing the opposition with matchup nightmares.

The trio of Tavares along with Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri gives Toronto three former 30-goal scorers down the middle. Opposing coaches will need to have their heads on a swivel as they attempt to react and respond to whoever the Maple Leafs throw over the boards.

Although Toronto is loaded with offensive firepower, the club will be starting the season at less than full strength as William Nylander remains unsigned. The restricted free agent has been unable to come to terms with the Maple Leafs and won’t be beginning the season with the team. His absence will be noticeable but it’ll be interesting to see how much the winger is missed.

Despite Nylander’s back-to-back 60-point seasons, if there’s one thing the Maple Leafs aren’t lacking, it’s goal scoring. Toronto scored the third-most goals in the league a season ago and also finished with the second-best powerplay, scoring on nearly 25 percent of their opportunities with the man-advantage. Although the club would certainly like Nylander in the lineup, his absence shouldn’t result in a major goal shortage for the club.

One of the biggest reasons Toronto is expected to maintain their status as a high-scoring team is the Maple Leafs’ new powerplay. Unlike previous years where Coach Mike Babcock attempted to create two balanced powerplay units, this season he’s followed in the footsteps of teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals by loading up the top unit.

The new powerplay unit was on full display in the final games of the preseason as Tavares, Matthews, Kadri, Mitch Marner and Morgan Rielly showed the opposition better stay out of the penalty box. In the two games Toronto dressed an NHL-style lineup to close out the preseason, they combined to score five powerplay goals.

Despite having plenty of offensive talent the area that remains a concern is the team’s blue line. The Maple Leafs return essentially the same lineup on defense from a season ago with the exception of Roman Polak being replaced by Igor Ozhiganov.

The Maple Leafs are taking a leap of faith by not doing more to address their blue line as the team will be counting on bounce back years and continued development. They hope Jake Gardiner can recover from an awful Game 7 elimination by the Boston Bruins in last year’s postseason. They hope Nikita Zaitsev can rebound after a strong rookie season was followed by a difficult sophomore year. The Leafs hope Ron Hainsey, at 37-years old, can hold up for not only the regular season but multiple playoff rounds. They also hope Travis Dermott can develop into a consistent top-four defenseman.

One player the team isn’t worried about is Rielly, who becomes the most important player on the ice not between the pipes. Rielly will be the team’s quarterback on the power play and also carry the load of matching up against the opposition’s best. Entering his sixth season, coming off a 52-point campaign a year ago, Rielly is expected to not only deliver a career year but also enter the discussion as one the league’s best on the blue line.

Then there’s Freddie Andersen, who has established himself as a top-10 goaltender within the league likely to play in the neighborhood of 65 games this season. Over the past two seasons, Andersen has done enough to prove he can be counted on to help the Maple Leafs reach the next level as a team. As long as Andersen stays healthy then Toronto will be able to call themselves legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.

The long rebuild has come to an end as the young kids are now multi-year veterans. First round postseason exits are no longer acceptable. The goal has risen to winning multiple playoff rounds. Expectations are higher than ever as the Maple Leafs begin the most anticipated season in at least 15 years.