NHL Push for the Playoffs: Maple Leafs have strength beyond Matthews, Marner

Push for the Playoffs will run every morning through the end of the 2021-22 NHL season. We’ll highlight the current playoff picture in both conferences, take a look at what the first-round matchups might look like, see who’s leading the race for the best odds in the draft lottery and more.

Every year, usually after the latest postseason exit, there always seems to be a discussion about whether or not the Toronto Maple Leafs need to trade one of their core players. Either to shake things up and change the structure of the roster, or because of something salary cap related to allow them to build a more well rounded teama.

In Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares, and William Nylander the Maple Leafs have a quartet of players that take up nearly $40 million in salary cap space, with Matthews, Marner, and Tavares each counting more than $10 million per year against the cap individually.

It is a lot, but it is not all that different from a lot of other Stanley Cup winning (or contending) teams. Good teams have multiple great players, great players cost money, and it forces them to get creative in building a roster around them. The best teams figure it out.

All things considered, the Maple Leafs have done a pretty good job. Matthews and Marner obviously get most of the headlines here because of their contracts and production (both are among the top offensive players in the league every year) but this current roster has become so much more than that top duo. Toronto’s front office has actually done a really solid job building a deep, well-rounded team around them even with the salary cap constraints. 

A couple of weeks ago our James O’Brien already looked how this team is better defensively than it gets credit for being,