Have the Maple Leafs Stopped Chasing the Wrong Thing?
One of the easiest mistakes we make when judging NHL teams is looking only at what we can count. Goals. Points. Individual statistics. Those numbers matter, of course. You cannot win in the NHL without skill and offence. But over the years, we have also learned that teams are rarely built by simply collecting the most talented players.
Sometimes the bigger question is not, “Who scores the goals?” It is, “What kind of team are you trying to become?”
What kind of team do the Maple Leafs need to be?
That may be the most interesting part of John Chayka’s first major offseason with the Toronto Maple Leafs. At first glance, the changes are easy to criticize. Toronto lost a significant amount of offensive production. Several players who contributed goals and points are gone, and the replacements do not appear to match those numbers on paper.
If the exercise is simply replacing one player’s statistics with another player’s statistics, the Maple Leafs probably look worse. But I’m not sure that was the exercise. Chayka appears to have looked at the Maple Leafs and decided the problem was not that they needed more offence. They already had Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Matthew Knies, and John Tavares.
Related: Whatever Happened to ex-Maple Leafs D-Man Martin Marincin?
The problem Chayka is trying to fix is how to win in the postseason.
The playoffs are not decided by October and November scoring races. They are decided by defensive details, puck battles, special teams, physical play, and the ability to handle difficult moments. That seems to be the direction behind the additions.
Players like Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Teddy Blueger, and Brandon Duhaime are not arriving because teams expect them to score 40 goals. They are arriving because they bring things that often become more valuable when the season gets serious.
They kill penalties. They win faceoffs. They defend. They make opponents uncomfortable.
Roslovic adds experience and McKenna adds possibility.
Jack Roslovic adds something different with his speed and ability to move the puck, while Gavin McKenna represents the wild card. A young player with elite offensive ability could eventually replace some of what Toronto lost. But the bigger message from this offseason is not about one player. It is about philosophy.
For years, the Maple Leafs have often been built around the idea that more skill would eventually solve everything. Chayka appears to be asking a different question. What if the team around the stars is built to make life easier for the stars? That is a very different approach. It may not look better on a spreadsheet in August. It may not produce the same exciting regular-season numbers. But hockey history is full of teams that discovered the same lesson.
The difference between having talent and winning hockey games.
A complete team is what usually finishes it. Whether Chayka’s plan works remains to be seen. But for the first time in a while, the Maple Leafs seem to be building with April in mind instead of October.