Leafs Nation, we are so close to the start of the NHL season —there is Toronto Maple Leafs preseason hockey on Sunday, Sept. 22 at 7:00 p.m. EST.
With so much to look forward to this season, there are also so many questions. Did the Maple Leafs do enough this offseason to improve their team? Will the Mitch Marner contract extension drama be a distraction? Is Berube the coach that gets the team over the hump?
We will finally start to be able to answer those questions in just a few weeks. Until then, let’s look at some of the biggest storylines heading into the 2024-25 season for the Maple Leafs.
Youth Movement?
The Maple Leafs are still a playoff contending team and thanks to very good drafting by the previous and current regime, it looks like they could be moving towards a bit of youth movement. Whether it is Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, Cade Webber, Topi Niemelä or Nikita Grebyonkin, the organization has young talent that will be pushing for spots.
It is no secret that Cowan and Minten will get the best looks at the NHL during training camp, they will likely participate in the most preseason games as well. Last season, there was the Maple Leafs’ “kid line” of Cowan, Minten and Knies. However, this season, Berube should split them up and give them more NHL experience on their lines.
Webber is another name that will likely get a good look at the NHL level. Even though he is 6-foot-7, he skates like he is 6-foot-1, and loves to play the game hard. Although, he may not start in the NHL, he will likely be a call-up candidate when there are injuries.
Unproven Goalie Tandem
The goalie tandem of Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz is unproven, but has a lot of potential. Woll has shown that he can step up in the big moments for the organization and be unfazed. The only real concern is, he struggles to stay healthy. If he can remain healthy, it looks like he will be the projected starting goalie for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season. Last season, when Ilya Samsonov lost the net, Woll went on a bit of a run and did fairly well, but sadly got injured and missed significant time with an ankle sprain. In 25 games, he had a 12-11-1 record with a 2.94 goals against average (GAA) and a .907 save percentage (SV%).
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As for Stolarz, he is a Stanley Cup Champion, which was won last season with the Florida Panthers. However, he hasn’t been an everyday NHL starter yet in his career. The most games started he has ever had in his seven-year career is 24, which was last season. Before that, it was 23 in 2021-22 with the Anaheim Ducks. He has been consistent during his starts, though. In 27 games last season, he started 24 and had a 16-7-4 record along with a 2.03 GAA and .925 SV%.
If he and Woll can be as good as they were last season, they should be able to lock down the crease for the Maple Leafs. But if all else fails, they do have Matt Murray as their third string goalie.
Marner & Tavares’ Contract Saga
The last major storyline and by far the biggest has to be the contractual status of both Marner and John Tavares. Both are entering their final year of their contracts and that will likely weigh heavily on the team, especially through the media. It won’t be as bad for the team, and the players, if they both can come out and have a good start to the season. This will likely spark “they are playing for a new contract” narrative. If that’s the case, and they do sign extensions during the season, they need to ensure that they don’t have any drastic change in production because that will also cause the media to be all over them.
Ideally, the Maple Leafs get a Tavares contract done during the season. Somewhere in and around $3 million over three seasons. The hope is that he will take a hometown discount to stay with the club, and with the lesser salary will come a reduced role over those three years. As for Marner, it may be best to wait till the season is over. Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving will get to see what type of season and playoff he will have before making the decision to commit seven-eight seasons and $12+ million to Marner.
The Marner extension shouldn’t be a panic signing. If they wait it out and things don’t look promising, they can pull off the same type of deal as the Calgary Flames did with Matthew Tkachuk. They allowed him and his agent to seek out other teams that would pay the money he wanted and then did a sign and trade with them and recoup high-quality assets. Treliving seems to be the type of GM that doesn’t panic often. In fact, he was the one who made the Tkachuk sign and trade. He has been there before and may end up in a similar spot this season. But he’ll need to take a good, long look at Marner’s camp’s asking price and his team and determine if he wants to commit the money and years or seek a trade.
Ultimately, it’ll all come down to how the team does this season.
