Jim Hiller doesn’t have the luxury of patience right now. With the Maple Leafs sitting second last in the Atlantic Division at 8-9-2 after 18 games, the lineup has become the first place to look for answers, especially with injuries piling up and the losses starting to sting.
The simplest fix is at the top of the forward group: Gavin McKenna needs to skate with Auston Matthews. With Kirill Marchenko and Jack Roslovic both out, Toronto needs another high-end piece on that line, and Colton Sissons isn’t that answer. The move would put McKenna and Easton Cowan on Matthews’ wings, giving the Leafs a mix of youth, skill and chemistry that could jump-start the offense.
That shuffle would open up the second line, and the cleanest fit there is Nick Paul beside John Tavares and William Nylander. Paul already showed he can work with Nylander when Tavares was hurt, and he also gives Toronto another center/wing option around Tavares.
Sissons, if he’s healthy after leaving the game against the New Jersey Devils with his own injury, can slide down to the third line as the center. Bo Groulx and Vinni Letteri should be the wingers there, and with Roslovic unavailable, the door is open for another roster move. The suggestion is to recall Groulx.
Dakota Joshua is another name that keeps coming up for the wrong reasons. He hasn’t looked sharp in his first handful of games, appearing slow and out of sync.
With the NHL’s tagging rules in play, he also becomes a logical trade candidate. Toronto has roughly $650,000 in tagging space left, which limits who can be brought up, and moving Joshua could free up anywhere from 25% to 100% of his $3.25 million contract.
The fourth line, though, should be left alone for now. It has been one of the team’s best units all season, and there’s no reason to break it up unless it starts to slip.
On the blue line, the ask is just as clear: Ben Danford needs a chance. The issue, again, is tagging room, which is why clearing Joshua’s contract was floated as a way to make the move possible. Toronto is already without Morgan Rielly, who has been great to start the season, while Chris Tanev needs planned nights off and the current third pair is Dakota Mermis and Cole McWard.
Danford would have been a better call-up than McWard, and he could have been used with either Oliver Ekman-Larsson or Darren Raddysh. He’s viewed as the future of the blue line, but he still hasn’t gotten an NHL opportunity despite the injuries.
The preferred pairings would be Jake McCabe with Darren Raddysh, Oliver Ekman-Larsson with Ben Danford, and Dakota Mermis with Troy Stecher. That setup gives each pair a defender the coach can lean on, while the top two pairs also include offensive-minded blue-liners to help the breakout. McWard isn’t being dismissed, but the argument is that Danford should have been the one recalled to give the club a spark.
That plan took a hit almost immediately, though, because Danford has broken his wrist and will be out for a significant amount of time.
In goal, the message is even more blunt: Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz need to make saves. Too many goals are going in that simply can’t beat an NHL netminder, and that has to change fast.
This is the tandem the organization believed could help carry the team toward the playoffs, but so far it has gone the other way and cost the Leafs games. It also raises the question of whether trading Joseph Woll was a mistake, since he was often the goalie the team leaned on when it needed a reset. He’s gone now, so somebody has to seize the job, or Toronto may have to consider giving Artur Akhtyamov a few starts to see if the results change.
With the pressure building in Toronto, the players, the coaches and the front office all need to do what their captains said and “look in the mirror.” Otherwise, the Leafs could be headed for a season that looks a lot like the one they had a year ago.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs Defensive Depth Search Just Ran Into A Rival Wrinkle
The Maple Leafs are still sorting through a thinning blue line, and the need for another defense option has only grown as injuries pile up. Torontos depth situation has become more urgent with Ben Danford sidelined, leaving the club watching the waiver wire for any help it can find.
One name that has surfaced is Cameron Crotty, who was placed on waivers by Minnesota after being claimed from Ottawa. Toronto could look to make a move, but the path is not clean, since the waiver order and Ottawas position in the process could complicate things before the Leafs even get a chance to act. [Read more 🡒]
Auston Matthews Sends Frustrated Message As Leafs Problems Keep Growing
The Maple Leafs are still searching for answers after another uneven night, this one a 4-0 loss to the New Jersey Devils that stretched their skid to three games and left them trying to steady a season that has already veered off course. Connor Hellebuyck was perfect for New Jersey, turning aside all 23 shots he faced, while Torontos issues with consistency and special teams again sat front and center as the club tried to explain why the same problems keep resurfacing.
Auston Matthews did not hide his frustration afterward, and his comments reflected a team that knows the excuses are starting to run thin. With injuries part of the backdrop, the captain said the current group has to take more responsibility for the results, a message that lands with extra weight when the losses keep piling up and the margin for patience keeps shrinking. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Just Lost A Young Blue-Line Option At The Worst Time
The Maple Leafs were already looking for help on the blue line, and Ben Danford had been one of the young internal options with a chance to work his way into the conversation. Instead, the Toronto Marlies defenseman is dealing with a broken wrist and is expected to be out week-to-week, a tough break for a player trying to stay on the radar at exactly the right moment.
For Toronto, the timing makes the injury sting even more. With the NHL club already managing injuries on defense, Danfords setback removes a possible call-up candidate from the mix and leaves the organization weighing other ways to patch together its blue-line depth while he recovers. [Read more 🡒]