The Toronto Maple Leafs could finally be realizing that their current roster construction will not take them to their first Stanley Cup since 1967. It has been a good run with the likes of Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, but they aren’t a duo that can break through and get it done in the postseason. The Maple Leafs would be better off finding a player with a winning pedigree who has been known to win games on the biggest stages, and that could come in the form of an old friend from the Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers.
Brad Marchand made Matthews and Marner’s lives miserable when he was with the Bruins. His first Game 7 victory against the Leafs came before they were on the team, but he won three more once they started playing in 2016. It seemed like Toronto would never make it past that roadblock, but when the Bruins shockingly traded their captain at the trade deadline, it seemed like the nightmare was over.
However, Marchand stayed in the division, and of course, the Maple Leafs had to play the Panthers in the second round of this year’s postseason. It looked like the Leafs were finally going to slay that beast when they took a 2-0 series lead, but the Panthers rallied, and Marchand recorded three points in the deciding Game 7.
Marchand is now set to enter free agency and could be looking at a deal worth more than $8 million annually. In a perfect world, Toronto would re-sign Marner and John Tavares, and then also bring in Marchand. However, the salary cap prevents that from happening. It’s now up to Brad Treliving to decide whether he will replace a player like Marner, who has meant so much to the city, with a player that the entire city has hated for over a decade. As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
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