The Toronto Maple Leafs appear to have wrapped up their regular season….and it is February 27th. Coming out of the Olympic break, the Leafs have shown little or no desperation and fire, and that once again was displayed in a 5-1 loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. Toronto came out of the gate in a coma, outshot 16-6 in the first period, and trailing 3-0 on goals from Brad Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, and Evan Rodrigues, and really did not display any serious attempt to get back into the game until the third period.
John Tavares scored in his second consecutive game, and Joseph Woll made 32 stops in the loss, which coupled with Boston’s 4-2 win over Columbus has the Leafs eight points out of the final Eastern Conference wildcard spot, with the Bruins holding a game in hand, lowering their odds of making the postseason to a puny 2.6%, according to Moneypuck.
If the narrative being floated out there before Wednesday that GM Brad Treliving was waiting to see what the results of the three games coming out of the break against Atlantic Division foes Tampa, Florida, and Ottawa before deciding whether Toronto would be sellers, getting swept in the Sunshine State should leave no doubt what the Leafs will do over the next seven days.
The most obvious fact through three-quarters of the season is that this team has quit on head coach Craig Berube. The Leafs have been dogged by injuries all season, but that is not the main reason why they will miss the playoffs for the first time in the Auston Matthews era. Stylistically, the Leafs roster does not match what style Berube wants to play, and Treliving’s attempt to adjust to that style with the additions of Nicolas Roy and Dakota Joshua have not helped make Toronto play with more sandpaper.
It seems painfully apparent that the chatter emanating from NHL insiders like Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun that Treliving was playing hard to get and holding out hope of staying playoff relevant, or that they are negotiating with pending free agents Bobby McMann and Scott Laughton as a point of leverage to get more favorable contracts were ploys to extract more value before the Leafs begin selling over the next week.
Now that Toronto is realistically no longer a playoff contender, they can still use the leverage of getting their pending UFA’s signed to get more draft capital, as long as they do not actually sign them. Chatter from The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta that McMann’s camp is looking for a five-year deal at $5 million per season should end any realistic chances of a deal being struck before 3 pm next Friday.
That reported ask is pretty close to what the 29-year-old winger will get on the open market this July. If there is no apparent discount, than Treliving should shop McMann and get the highest return possible, and then try to re-sign him this summer, but to not trade him or Laughton, as well as other players with term on their deal, would be a complete and total abrogation of the Leafs GM’s responsibility.
