Toronto Maple Leafs: A change in on-ice leadership is needed

The Toronto Maple Leafs are heading into a new era this upcoming season. No longer the “Core Four”, the Maple Leafs have an opportunity to redefine their team culture and on-ice leadership. I am not saying Mitch Marner was toxic in the dressing room or on the ice, but he was a key leader for the team.

Losing a key leader who has played for nearly a decade on the team will have lasting changes. While general manager Brad Treliving needs to solve the logjam of forwards, he is very unlikely to make a blockbuster trade given the lack of assets. This means that the current personnel will have to redefine the on-ice mindset going forward.

Make fans excited again

I think the Maple Leafs are in a similar spot to the Toronto Blue Jays. Both teams are owned by the media conglomerate Rogers, and both teams have superstars who have underperformed in recent years. However, right now the Blue Jays sit first in the American League and are tearing up the MLB. It’s a funny thing what winning does; the fanbase is having fun, and has found something that has been lacking for years: Excitement.

In recent years, Leafs fans have tempered expectations. No matter how well they performed in the regular season, there has been a “yeah, but let’s wait until the playoffs” mentality. And for good reason. The Maple Leafs have lost in the most shambolic ways possible in the playoffs in the Matthews era. 

Needed change

After the 3–1 series collapse against the Canadiens in 2021, many Leafs fans wanted changes to the team because clearly the “Core Four” model did not work. Since this series, many Leafs fans were pretty apathetic towards the team. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be until this upcoming season, five seasons later, that the Core Four is finally dead. 

It’s this apathy that needs to change, and I don’t fault the fans for feeling the way they do. It would be very different if the Maple Leafs lost each playoff series similarly to how they lost to the Presidents’ Trophy Washington Capitals in 2017. Sure, they only mustered two playoff wins, but the young Leafs team took five of the six games to overtime. And, the team noticeably played with heart and effort in each game.

It’s not the fact that they keep losing; it’s more about how they keep losing that is the issue. Yes, anything short of a Stanley Cup win can be considered a “failure” (just ask Edmonton Oilers fans how they feel at the moment). But I think we would all agree that we would be much more excited for the team if the playoff series were close and the superstars absolutely dominated. Instead, we have seen too many playoff games where players mail it in or the team noticeably gives up.

Regardless, the on-ice leaders need to change the narrative and make fans excited again. Given the overwhelming support by the fans over the last decade, it’s on the players to change the narrative. The fanbase deserves this.

The leaders need to lead

Part of changing the on-ice product is that the leaders of this team need to step up and change the culture. With John Tavares signing a team-friendly deal at four years x $4.38M, he will no longer be looked at as one of “the guys”. With the departure of Marner, all eyes are squarely fixated on captain Auston Matthews. 

Even William Nylander, who has generally not been in the spotlight as much as Matthews or Marner over the years, will have more pressure. I don’t doubt that Nylander will handle the increase in media pressure well, as nothing seems to rattle him. But I would want to see Nylander and Matthews emerge as the forefront leaders this season.

I think the culture so far has been for the vast majority of the team to simply defer to two or three players to get it done, rather than play a game that synergizes seamlessly with the superstars. Part of this was because the team was always up to the salary cap ceiling year after year, leaving very little money for a better supporting cast.

However, the leaders of this team, Nylander, Matthews, Morgan Rielly, and now arguably Matthew Knies, need to set the tone of how the game is played. While Craig Berube’s system will heavily influence this, it’s up to the players to execute and manage the emotional dynamics of the game. 

This is something we haven’t seen in the playoffs during this era: the superstars haven’t played with an overwhelming sense of grit and determination, nor have they put the team on their back and “will” the team to victory. These are characteristics that make a good on-ice leader (e.g., Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon), and are what we need to see from the Leafs’ leaders.

The blue-collar mindset

Last season was the first season under head coach Craig Berube. The team was noticeably different from previous teams. The team forechecked hard, played a dump-and-chase game, crashed the net more often, and was overall more physical. It was indeed a brand of hockey that translated better to the playoffs. 

The Leafs did look different against the Ottawa Senators and for several games against the Florida Panthers. It’s unrealistic to think that a team that has played the same style for eight years would suddenly do the polar opposite. Nevertheless, they need to continue to build this brand this season.

Ultimately, what Craig Berube is pushing is a blue-collar mindset. And this is what a large part of Leafs Nation wants. Go back and watch the playoff series in the 90s and early 2000s. The building was loud and passionate. But it’s how the team played that gave rise to this passion. Say what you want about the Doug Gilmour, Wendel Clark, and Mats Sundin teams. But what these teams had in common was that they worked hard, and their superstars were the face of their respective eras because they came through in big moments.

Even though these teams “lost”, they are some of the most cherished teams in the fandom. Wendell Clarke scored a hat-trick in a Game 6 elimination game against the Los Angeles Kings in the 1993 Conference Finals. While the Leafs eventually lost in overtime, when has a superstar in the Matthews era done anything remotely similar?

Instead, what we have so far seen has been a collection of playoff collapses and generally uninspired playoff hockey. Nylander, Matthews, and Rielly can still become beloved like the greats of the past, but it’s going to require them to push through the adversity and rise to the occasion.