Rebuilding the Toronto Maple Leafs: A new team culture

The Auston Matthews era of the Toronto Maple Leafs has received much vitriol not only from Leafs Nation but also from fans of other teams. And for good reason. While the team has performed statistically well in the regular season, they crumble time and time again during the playoffs. This year marked the ninth consecutive failure.

The Maple Leafs are reportedly interested in acquiring Mika Zibanejad, and several other players are set to become free agents on July 1. However, this year’s free agent crop is not the best. Nor do the Maple Leafs have many assets to spend.

Perhaps this year, the Maple Leafs should take a “step back” and focus on changing the abysmal culture in the locker room. Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, and Artemi Panarin, to name a few, are at the top of next year’s free agency class

Play like a team

The 2017 Washington Capitals playoff series

Maple Leafs fans tend to look favourably on the 2017 playoff series against the Washington Capitals. It’s not hard to see why. The three budding superstars of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander all played together for the first year. 

While it was exciting seeing these young phenoms make amazing plays, what’s overlooked is that the Maple Leafs were fairly deep that year and played like a team. The Maple Leafs exceeded expectations and just barely held onto the final wild card spot with 95 points. 

In the playoffs, the Maple Leafs took a 2–1 series lead at one point against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Washington Capitals. A further testament of how well the team did collectively was that five of the six games were decided in overtime.

The rise and fall of the Core Four era

I bring this series up because it was the only time in the Matthews era where the superstars were not automatically deferred to as they are now. They were young and inexperienced, and as a result, the whole group played like a team.

With the addition of John Tavares and the outcome of contract negotiations for the Maple Leafs’ superstars, the team became so top-heavy that there was no money left to sign depth players who can score in the playoffs.

This resulted in everyone deferring to the superstars to carry the team. This was noticeable in games where Auston Matthews was injured. The Maple Leafs are an astounding 45–24–2 without Auston Matthews, and the quality of play shows. The team plays a tighter game and pushes the play in his absence because they have to. When he would return, the team would revert back to deferring to Matthews. This aspect of the team culture needs to change.

Disaster is an opportunity in disguise

While good in theory to bet on your superstars, this did not work in the Maple Leafs’ case due to the percentage of the salary cap the superstars received. This isn’t the NBA, where one superstar can literally win a team games (McDavid excluded). The Florida Panthers just showed in back–to–back years, especially this year, that depth is paramount to winning a Stanley Cup.

With the salary cap model Maple Leafs’ management created, the pressure was always on the Core Four. I understand the frustration that fans have with the superstars–if you’re paid top dollar, you better produce. And they didn’t. What if Matthews, Marner, or Nylander just scored one to two goals more? The narrative around this team could’ve been completely different.

With Marner testing the market, and possibly John Tavares, the Core Four is finally dead. Though it’s likely the Maple Leafs will re-sign Tavares, Tavares will not be making $11M/year and will just be “a player”. The Maple Leafs have an opportunity to reinvent their team culture.

This past year under Craig Berube was a good start, and the team was probably one of the more “playoff-ready” rosters we have seen in the last decade. But headed into free agency, the Maple Leafs should only sign players who can help change the room or emulate a particular identity they are looking for.

This team is not close to contending, and Maple Leafs’ management needs to accept this fact. They should not sign players to mammoth contracts just to simply “remain competitive”. I would be fine with the Maple Leafs taking a step back this year to develop a winning culture. But this starts with your captain.

Auston Matthews has to be a leader

The injury last season

Matthews’s first season as captain of the Maple Leafs did not go as planned. Matthews was once again injured, playing 67 games. In the games that he did play, he did not look like prime Auston Matthews. He finished the season with 33 goals and 45 assists for 78 points. He had another disappointing playoff performance, only scoring three goals in 11 games.

It’s how Matthews and the coaching staff decided to deal with his injury that has many fans upset. Rather than make use of LTIR, the team got a sub-optimal Matthews. However, he was still able to play in the 4 Nations: Face-Off tournament. At the very least, he should have been rested for the playoffs.

We will never know the full story, but based on how this season went, and that he said he would be 100% for the beginning of the year at the end of season presser, I have a hard time believing he did not meet the criteria for LTIR.

Matthews should have known that the team needed him at 100%, rather than how he played last season. You would expect your captain to have the maturity to do what is best for the team instead of pursuing individual goals.

Matthews needs to be dominant on the ice

What makes a great captain? The captain is normally the player that the team can turn to in big moments to get the team back into the game, or close the game out. We have numerous examples of captains from other teams doing this, especially during the playoffs, as well as in Maple Leafs history. 

We saw glimpses of Matthews’ ability to take over games earlier in his career. He would display this next gear that McDavid or Nathan MacKinnon possesses on a nightly basis–this ability or drive to win. However, as Matthews goes on in his career, we see it maybe 1–2 games per year. Matthews needs to lead by example and take over games, especially as the captain.

This also relates to the winning identity that the Maple Leafs need to develop. When the team is behind a goal in the third period of a critical playoff game, who on the Maple Leafs would we expect to tie the game? If the answer is not Matthews, then it’s a problem. And unfortunately, he has not produced in big moments that you would expect of your captain.

If the Maple Leafs want to be successful, then their best players need to show up in the critical moments. Matthews still has time to rewrite the narrative around him, but he has to start finding that next gear consistently.

The offseason

I think many fans expect the Maple Leafs to bring in prime players aged 24–26 on low AAV and maximum term. However, the Maple Leafs’ window is the next three years, the duration of Matthews’ contract. With there being no decent free agents this season, and the salary cap increasing over the next several years, this is not the season to go all-in.

The Maple Leafs need to focus on building a winning culture this season. With the Core Four finally dead, the Maple Leafs can actually change the identity of this team. Next season is the season to go all-in with the superior free agent class.

But, what do you think? Should the Maple Leafs go all-in anyway? What else should the Maple Leafs do to change their identity? Let us know down below!