The Toronto Maple Leafs opened their preseason with a narrow loss to the Ottawa Senators, falling short in their debut. Auston Matthews did his best to tilt the game in Toronto’s favor, but Shane Pinto’s overtime winner sealed the victory for Ottawa.
After the Maple Leafs’ 3-2 overtime loss on Tuesday, one takeaway stood out above the rest: their blue line will be under the spotlight heading into the regular season. And for at least one defenseman, the confidence from analysts already seems to be slipping away.
NHL Analysts Have Lost All Confidence in Maple Leafs Defenseman
While Toronto’s front line was visibly reeling from the loss of Mitch Marner, their defense made it clear where the franchise needs to focus right now. While some argued that there were hardly any other than AHL players in Tuesday’s game, the Maple Leafs’ woes on the blue line continued.
With the Core Four era coming to an end with Marner’s trade, many experts believe the Maple Leafs must move on from their top-heavy approach. NHL analysts Dom Luszczyszyn and Scott Wheeler believe one player in particular has already lost their confidence.
Luszczyszyn and Wheeler mentioned, “The Leafs lack the secondary core Florida and Tampa Bay possess, and without Marner they’re now also behind the eight-ball when it comes to high-end talent.” They believe that the only way to mitigate these is by getting Matthews back to his 1A form.
They continued, “Nylander approaching the top of Tier 2 would also help. But that alone isn’t enough.” Wheeler added that for the Leafs to truly contend, Matthew Knies and Easton Cowan would need to make the unlikely leap from Tier 4 into a solid Tier 3 to provide the necessary support behind Matthews and Nylander.
They also stressed that Toronto’s depth across the lineup needs to step up. But while much of the attention has been on the front line, Luszczyszyn and Wheeler pointed out that Morgan Rielly hasn’t been performing at the level expected of a true No. 1 defenseman.
According to them, every legitimate Cup contender has at least one blueliner ranked as a Tier 3 or higher, a standard Rielly currently doesn’t meet. “The elephant in the room is that Toronto’s best defenseman, whether you think that’s Morgan Rielly, Chris Tanev, or even Jake McCabe, just isn’t good enough,” they said.
They believe that Rielly’s struggle in becoming that No. 1 defenseman for the Maple Leafs is what is holding the team back. They continued, “Divisional competition, the loss of Marner, and the lack of a No. 1, that might be one too many problems to solve. But it’s not impossible.”
While both Wheeler and Luszczyszyn agree that at this point the Maple Leafs have a lot of issues to solve, they also believe that Toronto has the chance to improve.
“The Leafs have a needle to thread that starts with outlasting or besting Florida and Tampa Bay and finding creative solutions to complex problems,” they said. If the Maple Leafs want to have a better chance in the playoffs this time around, they will need to address these issues soon.