Hope springs eternal, are the Leafs ready to win a round in 2021?

The Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas had made some interesting changes to the face of the Leafs during free agency. He added leadership, grit and defensive depth at very little cost. By signing Joe Thronton, Wayne Simmonds, T.J Brodie,Zach Bogosian and Jimmy Vessey while trading away Andreas Johnsson to New Jersey and Kapseri Kappanen to Pittsburgh the makeup of the team seemed very different. Rasmus Sandin had spent the offseason packing on some pounds while the team added the best defenseman in Europe in Mikko Lehtonen and of course Nicholas Robertson was ready to push for a spot on the team.In addition, backup goaltender Jack Campbell would start the season while goaltender Aaron Dell had been added for insurance purposes.

So, what could possibly go wrong? Injuries. Joe Thornton was no longer a spring chicken and in the past couple of seasons, injuries had affected Wayne Simmonds game and if Wayne went down, the Leafs didn't have a lot of push up front. A guy like Simmonds commanded respect and forced other players to think twice before running the Leafs star players and trying to injure and intimadate them. Players like Zach Hyman and Jimmy Vessey didn't do that and were slightly different types of players.

The Maple Leafs goaltending seemed set with Frederick Andersen heading into a contract year but the question was would Leaf GM Kyle Dubas let him walk away for nothing or would he trade him, getting an asset in return? The truth is Andersen was 0 and 8 in games that mattered and other teams had done well with young and cheaper goaltending. Rumours appeared that the Carolina Hurricanes might be interested in acquiring Andersen.

On defense it seemed the Maple Leafs had their best defense since the heady days of coach Pat Burns. Their defense boasted offense with the like of Reilly, Brodie, Muzzin, Lehtonen and Sandin. Size with Muzzin and Bogosian to keep other teams honest and of course depth with Holl and perhaps even Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren. The backend seemed set, at least on paper.

The question was, what did the Toronto Maple Leafs need to win a round or two of the Stanley cup playoffs? The answer ? The Leafs needed another power forward in case Simmonds went down to injuries again. The most likely forward to be replaced seemed to be Alex Kerfoot who was on a reasonable $3.5 Million per year contract. Depending on how Dubas saw the 2021 draft, a package of Kerfoot and a first rounder plus might get it done. If not, he might have to wait until the trade deadline to acquire such a player on the cheap.

The other thing the Maple Leafs needed to do was finish higher in the standings and gain home ice advantage where it would be harder for the refs to interfere in the outcome of the games, as all of Canada knew about. Having Campbell plus Keefe would help but the team needed to avoid those late season slumps as well.

This year's edition looked good on paper and had almost all the pieces required to make some noise in the Stanley cup playoffs, it was now upto Dubas to work some magic and find that last piece,another power forward who would put respect into opposing teams when the refs stood idly by and watched the Leafs stars attacked while calling everything the Leafs did as we have seen time after time after time here in Canada, thus the pathetic t.v numbers last year in the finals.

With the Toronto Maple Leafs having an extensive analytics team, all paid for by the hard working fans, perhaps Dubas could set up an anlytics team to analyze the nuances of referees and help spot undue influencing, after all it is the fans who get robbed. A legal team may even be set up given the Maple Leafs considerable weight in the league and thus avoid situations such as the Vancouver riots or Doug Gilmour's 2 minutes for having his face carved open by Wayne Gretzky penalty. This improvement may even bring fans back to the sport as most Canadian fans know of the inconsistencies, in fact Jarome Iginla once requested a trade to an American team knowing that he would never win a cup in Canada. The bottom line is if changes aren't made the league itself is likely in peril as more and more Canadian fans lose interest and t.v viewings continue to plumett.After all, isn't Dubas about innovation and new thinking? The Maple Leafs should be able to win a round or two with this edition, gaining invaluable experience for their now, not so young, stars. It would also help the game and it's t.v presence/ ratings. Are they ready to take out the Tampa Bay Lightning? Probably not but they may be ready to slay the Boston dragon and even that would be considered a success at this point.