Mitch Marner aside, there are 3 important Maple Leafs storylines worth following
While Mitch Marner has dominated the Toronto headlines for most of the summer, there are 3 additional Maple Leafs storylines worth following this season.
There are certainly more than 3 intriguing storylines in Toronto as we approach the 2024-25 season, but for the sake of saving time, I'm only going to address what, in my mind, are the top-3, starting with what I believe is the most important one.
The Re-vamped Blueline:
The Leafs may not have gone big game hunting this summer, but they did do what Brad Treliving had vowed to do heading into this offseason; addressing the blueline.
The Maple Leafs saw the likes of T.J. Brodie, Joel Edmundson, Mark Giordano and Ilya Lyubushkin walk via free agency this summer. That's quite a bit of turnover at the NHL level, however, Treliving seems to have adequately addressed these issues, Jani Hakanpaa notwithstanding.
I believe that, while the Hakanpaa deal hasn't yet been finalized, it will get done, which means that the Leafs will have replaced the outgoing pieces with Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Hakanpaa. A tidy bit of work, I must say.
The new D pairs, at least on paper, are superior to what the Leafs ran last season.
Rielly/Tanev
Ekman-Larsson/McCabe
Benoit/Liljegren
Hakanpaa
The New Coaching Staff
For all the success that Sheldon Keefe experienced in the regular season, the Leafs were not able to accomplish much in the postseason, which will likely be what Keefe is remembered for in Toronto.
Enter a very experienced coaching staff who have experienced a tremendous amount of playoff success.
Craig Berube, Lane Lambert, Marc Savard and Mike Van Ryn are all in possession of something Sheldon Keefe did not have. A Stanley Cup ring. Berube, Savard and Van Ryn were all together on the 2019 Blues team that won the Cup, while Lambert was an assistant under Barry Trotz in Washington when the Caps one their Stanley Cup in 2018.
All of these coaches come into to Toronto with a very strong reputation and a winning pedigree. That will go a long way with the players, who have not been able to get over the hump under the previous regime.
The Youth Movement in Toronto
It seems like just a season or two ago when Matthews, Marner and Nylander were all under 23 years old. How quickly things change. Now, with Matthews on the cusp of turning 27, the Leafs have a new collection of young players coming up and making an impact, starting with Matthew Knies and Joseph Woll.
Both Knies and Woll are expected to take huge steps this year. The Leafs banked on both of them in a big way, trusting Woll within their 1A/1B tandem, despite his very limited NHL sample size.
Similarly, when Tyler Bertuzzi walked in free agency, the Leafs didn't go out and bring in another winger. One of the reasons, I'm sure, is because the organization knows that Knies is due for a breakout campaign in his sophomore season. Not only that, but there are two stellar young prospects in the organization in Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan who are also expected to push for a roster spot in training camp this fall.
Obviously, we don't have a crystal ball. We don't know how things are going to go for the Leafs this season. But these 3 storylines are certainly intriguing and give Leafs fans a lot to be excited about this year.
Whatever happens with Mitch Marner happens, but he's certainly not the centre of the universe in Toronto, as much as we all seem to make him out to be.
| POLL | ||
JUILLET 22 | 411 ANSWERS Mitch Marner aside, there are 3 important Maple Leafs storylines worth following Which storyline, aside from Mitch Marner, are you most excited to see play out this season? | ||
| The emergence of a new D corps | 191 | 46.5 % |
| The new coaching staff in action | 131 | 31.9 % |
| The youth movement coming in | 69 | 16.8 % |
| Other | 20 | 4.9 % |
| List of polls | ||
