The Maple Leafs May Be Building a “Just in Case” Roster
Watching the Maple Leafs last season may have taught John Chayka something that doesn't always show up in the standings. It wasn't simply that Toronto didn't have enough talent. The Maple Leafs had plenty of talent. The bigger problem was what happened when things didn't go according to plan.
Injuries happen. Players have bad stretches. Schedules get ugly. Stars get tired. Sometimes a team simply doesn't play as well as it expected to. The question is what happens next. That may be one reason I find what Chayka has done this offseason so interesting.
The Maple Leafs Needed More Answers When Things Weren’t Going Well.
Last season, Toronto could look like a very good hockey team when its best players were playing well. But there were times when too much seemed to depend on too few players. That's a dangerous place for an NHL team to be.
The unusual Olympic season probably made that more obvious. The schedule was demanding, recovery time was limited, and teams had to deal with injuries and fatigue. Some clubs were simply better equipped to absorb those problems. Maybe Chayka noticed that.
I'm not suggesting we know that every move he has made came directly from watching what happened to the Maple Leafs last season. That's impossible to know from the outside. But there does seem to be a connection between what Toronto experienced and the kind of roster Chayka appears to be building. He's adding depth almost everywhere.
And I don't think the purpose is simply to have a deeper roster on paper. It looks more like he's building a just-in-case roster.
Related: How Wendel Clark Became a Superstar Without Being a Superstar
What Happens When the Maple Leafs Plan A Doesn't Work?
That's an important distinction. A traditional way of building a hockey team is to identify your best players and then try to put enough talent around them to make the whole thing work. But perhaps the better question is: What happens when Plan A doesn't work?
What happens when Matthews isn't scoring? What happens when Nylander misses time? What happens when a defenceman gets hurt? What happens when the fourth line has to play more minutes than expected? And what happens when the coach needs a different kind of player for a particular opponent?
The more answers a team has, the less likely one problem becomes a crisis. That's what I see in Chayka's approach.
Chayka Isn't Moving Away From the Stars.
He doesn't seem to be trying to reduce the importance of Toronto's stars. He seems to be trying to make sure the team doesn't need those stars to solve every problem. Maybe that's the real lesson from last season.
The best NHL roster isn't necessarily the one with the most talent. It may be the one that is best prepared for the things nobody planned for. And after watching what happened to the Maple Leafs last season, perhaps John Chayka decided that Toronto needed to be ready for almost anything.