Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 burning questions for the 2019-20 season

The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered yet another first-round playoff exit. Will the offseason changes be enough to push them over the slump?

The Toronto Maple Leafs made some drastic moves this summer to shore up their weak defense and improve their center depth. General Manager Kyle Dubas made a big splash when he traded away centerman Nazem Kadri to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for Alexander Kerfoot and Tyson Barrie.

He also acquired Jason Spezza and Cody Ceci. It will interesting to see if these new faces will be what finally pushes the team over the first-round hump. Here are three burning questions facing the Maple Leafs as they enter the 2019-2020 season.

3. Will the special teams improve with the new faces?

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Even though the Maple Leafs had the eighth-best powerplay in the league with a 21.8% success rate, most of that success came early in the season when their power play was unstoppable. Before December, they had the third-best powerplay in the league.

Then it fell off a cliff and they dropped to eighth. Near the end of the season, they couldn’t buy a goal. In the playoffs, they only converted on three of 16 chances.

With Patrick Marleau gone and William Nylander playing a full season, it will give the team two very stacked powerplay units. The addition of Jason Spezza gives the Leafs a centerman on the second unit rather than have a winger take the faceoff.

The penalty kill for the Maple Leafs was even worse. They had a 79.9% success rate, good for 16th in the NHL. The biggest reason for this was because they didn’t have a center to take the defensive zone faceoff.

Most of them were taken by Zach Hyman who had a 47% success rate at the dot. With an established centerman in Jason Spezza, he can become the defensive faceoff specialist to give an edge to the Leafs’ penalty killers.

In his last 12 seasons, Spezza’s faceoff success has always been over 50% and last season it was 58.2%. The faceoff wins that he can provide will be a huge help for the Leafs and his impact will be seen instantly.

2. Is Mike Babcock willing to adapt to Kyle Dubas’ team?

Kyle Dubas has gone all-in on talent. The Maple Leafs have no “rough and tough” players and they are on the team because of their skill, not the physical factor. Mike Babcock is a very old-school coach that likes his grinders and this smaller, fast team is not what he is used to.

Leafs Nation is very familiar with Babcock overplaying mediocre veteran players instead of giving the younger, more talented players a chance. Last season, the Leafs acquired Nic Petan before the Trade Deadline and Babcock let him play just five games. He overplayed 38-year-old Ron Hainsey for two seasons even though he was clearly fatigued and not playing at his best.

During the 2019 playoffs, Bruce Cassidy‘s Perfection Line of Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, and David Pastrnak wasn’t working so he changed up the lines and it worked really well for them. Babcock on the other hand, played the same four lines throughout the whole series, even in Game 7 when it was obvious that some change was necessary. That kind of stubbornness will not be tolerated for another season.

Dubas is building a team to compete with the modern-day NHL but that vision clashes with Babcock’s coaching strategies. If Babcock continues to be very stubborn with his players and isn’t open-minded with new strategies, it is very possible that he gets fired.

1. Will the backup goalie situation be fixed this season?

Frederik Andersen played 60+ games for the third straight season. Even though he played 6 fewer games last season, it is still a very tough workload and a big reason was because of the lack of trust Babcock had in the backup goalie, Garret Sparks. Sparks played 17 games – almost all of them on the second half of back-to-back games – and he had a .902 save percentage and a 3.15 goals-against average.

Michael Hutchison played 5 games and had a 2-3 record. Both players are signed for next season and it’s extremely important that they improve upon last season.

Last season, a back-to-back game was almost a guaranteed loss but if one of the backup goaltenders can refind their groove, it will not just benefit the team in the standings, but it will give Babcock more chances to rest Andersen for the playoffs.