The Leafs have a 5-3-1 record through the first 9 games of the season and by looking at just that most people would say that everything is fine and that they are on a pace to make the playoffs easily, but if you watched them play this season at least few games you could see bunch of holes in this team that they need to address if they want to be “contenders” for a strong run in the playoff. To be clear the season just started and we are maybe overrecting but the Leafs have only a few players that meet expectations this season and in my opinion, those players are Nylander, Knies, Tavares, Rielly, and a great start from Woll in net. Some other players had flashes like Matthews in the first two games, and Domi’s great 3rd period in Tampa but you would expect those kinds of players to have some impact in most games.

Let’s start with goaltending and the Leafs have a weird dynamic at this point in the net as Samsonov didn’t look good in any of his 5 starts this season. He has recorded two wins to start the season but has allowed 9 goals combined in those two games. Despite getting wins those were very bad games from him and he was bailed out by mostly Matthews and great offense from the Leafs. After that he started 3 games on the road and went 0-1-1 across three starts and one start without loss on his record was in Tampa where he allowed 3 goals on 4 shots and was lucky that Woll came in a led the Leafs to a comeback win while stopping all 27 shots. Woll has been a completely different story as he has a .942 save percentage and looks great in most aspects this season. He has a 3-2-0 record and in both of his losses, the Leafs played terribly and scored only 1 goal in each of those losses. Woll is at this point much better goalie and I would trust him to start at least 70% of games moving forward.

Playing it simply the Leafs don’t have a defense that can be impactful in the playoffs as they have only 2 playoffs I would trust in important games in Rielly and Brodie. There are Liljegren and Giordano who can be good at playing 3 pair numbers but on the Leafs’ current structure, they will need to play much more. McCabe can play good games but he doesn’t look reliable on a daily basis and it is very difficult to predict what kind of night he will provide. Klingberg has been a total miss as he got paid 4 mil. for this season and for that kind of money he needs to be a defenceman that will play stable 15-17 minutes per night but he isn’t a player that can provide that. He was a player that was brought in to be an offensive threat and he had some offensive flashes but his defensive play is a big concern as he has problems every time he is on his own end. Rielly and Brodie are the only defensemen with plus in the plus/minus category and will likely be the only one this season which is a very concerning thing for a team that has Stanley Cup aspirations.

Let’s start with forwards who have performed well so far and in that category we don’t have many of them. William Nylander has been by far Toronto’s best player and it looks like a good business decision that he didn’t sign a contract extension before this season. He is in a contract year and if he continues to play at a similar level to his play so far he will for sure be in a 10.5 mil. per year range as he will look to sign the next big NHL contract. Nylander has 13 points(6 goals, 7 assists) across 9 games and has over 4 shots per game. Tavares has 12 points and as a part of a line with Nylander, they both look good and should continue to produce. Knies is a really good surprise as he plays great on both sides of the ice and if he continues to develop in the right way he could become a player that can be a top 4 forward on a lot of theams in a few years.

None of Domi, Bertuzzi, or Reaves have matched expectations so far early in the season. Domi had one good game in Tampa and we can see that he has the potential to be a good depth player for the Leafs but we are still waiting for him to perform consistently on a nightly basis. Reaves had a few fights early in the season but except that his performance is below expectations. Bertuzzi seems out of place while playing in the top 6 and doesn’t have chemistry with top players on the Leafs and that should become a concern really soon for all fans as he is getting paid 5 mil. for this year and big things were expected when he signed over the summer.

And at the end, we have the two SuperStars on the Leafs. Matthews and Marner don’t look like the best players on the ice after the first two games of the season. Over the last 7 games, Matthews has 4 points(1 goal, 3 assists) and Marner has 5 points(2 goals, 3 assists) which is far below our expectation for players that should be in a 100+ points range at the end of the season. A big concern is that they don’t look as impactful as in the past and the fans would like to see them play better and with that, the Leafs would end up winning more games. Can they turn it around is the question for some fans but I wouldn’t worry about that as they are world-class players and will perform better at some point. But my main question for this team is in defense and can they have 6 solid D-men after the trade deadline? I am afraid that they can’t get that and with that, it will be difficult for them to have a deep playoff run. 

What if Nylander continues his dominance this season, can you pay him 10.5 mil. per season or even more, because he will have similar offers. Can you relive some cap by trading Tavares to make space for Nylander? What to do with your defense as you will likely need at least 2 good pieces for you to be a Cup contender. Can Woll become a top-10 goalie by the end of the season if they want to make a playoff run this season? What is a plan with Samsonov if Woll becomes a clear no. 1 goalie? ….and much more. There are many questions with this team that will need to be answered over the next 12 months and we will be here to cover all of them.