The Toronto Maple Leafs finished 2021-2022, with 115 points in the NHL, one spot below the Florida Panthers and above the Tampa Bay Lightning. During the off-season, the Tampa Bay Lightning arguably got worse, by losing Ondrej Palat and Jan Rutta.
The only additions were Ian Cole, Haydn Fleury, Vladislav Namestikov, and Trevor Carrick, BriseBois focused on depth rather than addressing the scoring loss of Ondrej Palat.
The Leafs took the former champions to 7 games and despite their loss in the first round, looked good in the post-season. According to PointsBet, the Maple Leafs have 900+ odds of winning a cup, the same as the Lightning who were recently dethroned by Colorado.
Also in Florida, they lost a core defenseman in Mackenzie Weeger, Mason Marchment, Ben Chiarot, Claude Giroux and the franchise favorite, Jonathan Huberdeau. While they added Matthew Tkachuk, the team isn't built the same, and Andrew Brunette isn't returning. Adding Paul Maurice is a questionable add, who doesn't run the same style of offense, as Brunette did, it can be said they didn't upgrade in the off-season.
All that matters now, is that Kyle Dubas addressed the needs of the team, to push them forward into the Finals this year, and Sheldon Keefe keeps pushing Auston Matthews to deliver on his potential, in the off-season as well.
It's difficult to agree with this opinion, but last season the Avalanche swapped out Philipp Grubauer and added Darcy Kuemper and managed to win a Cup. So maybe swapping Matt Murray for Jack Campbell could have the same impact?
