Now that the trade deadline has passed, there is no longer any reason to think that the Leafs can simply acquire a player from a losing team and hope he becomes the magic bullet that will turn everything around. Having said that, the Maple Leafs have had a lot of needs this season, and even though Brad Treliving made some moves that appeared to acknowledge those problems, it appears that the team’s current roster will still need to do a lot of work.
According to Brad Treliving, you shouldn’t construct teams at the trade deadline; instead, you should, in his opinion, win something before making such a risky move.
Before I get into the other random ideas, I want to pose a question for which I have no answers: does Brendan Shanahan’s job security in Toronto benefit or suffer from this deadline? From Shanahan’s point of view, I would have expected a push for the Leafs to get bigger, but perhaps MLSE was looking for the Leafs and their President to show restraint after getting bigger in the past.The question of how big the Leafs should have gone despite wanting to maximize Auston Matthews’ window is valid given that the team is good but has flaws in goaltending, defense, secondary scoring, and inconsistent play.
The new general manager is still evaluating the team in his first season. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to take a step back and hold off on making a strong move for a minute. The Leafs can still make some noise next month if that is the purpose of this trade deadline, which alters my perspective.
Nevertheless, the Leafs were aware of their defensive shortcomings going into the summer. It didn’t help that Klingberg was injured and signed a contract.
