Decision Time for Maple Leafs

I am pondering about the off-season. There are a lot of changes that need to be discussed in the Toronto Maple Leafs lineup. For instance, what are we going to do about Mathews, Nylander, and Marner?

We really can’t sign all of them, can we? Then there is the reality that the Toronto Maple Leafs need to rebuild the defence. They had too many defence errors in their own zone.

Other than Henezi and O’Reilly, there are no other defencemen that the Maple Leafs can rely on defensively. Which begs the question, who calls Marner or Nylander? There are arguments to be made for either one staying.

First of all, let’s talk about the advantages of keeping William Nylander. Nylander is a fast-moving skater with a fantastic wrist shot. He is probably the smoothest skater on the team. He is fast and dangerous every time he has the puck. He and Matthews seem to know where each other are at all times.

Now on to Marner. Mitch is probably one of the best second-line centres in the League. Mitch is a perfect second-line centre.  Mitch will excel at the second line because he is not facing the number one line every night. He can do whatever you want without the limelight. Every other team will be focussed on stopping Matthews. That would give Mitch the freedom to do whatever he wants. I feel Mitch will excel as a second-line centre. He won’t have too much pressure, and he’s not the man, he's the secondary man. If Mitch were an actor, he probably could win best supporting actor in the series.

There you have it. As you can see, both players have their merits. When it comes down to it, it is simple mathematics. Or economics, I should say. William Nylander will fetch around $9 million. Mitch Marner, on the other hand, fetches about $10-11 million. Dare I say, some people seem to think that he will fetch as much as Mathews. The only reason I would pick William over Mitch is pure mathematics. Williams would the cheaper signing. I also think Mitch will get us a better defenceman in the trade market.

Talking about a new defenceman; who do the Maple Leafs go after? The most obvious one will be going through the free-agent market and getting Carlsson from Washington. He is a smooth skater and could be the perfect powerplay quarterback for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

My biggest fantasy would be acquiring a defenceman from the Nashville Predators. Of course, I am referring to PK Subban. The price tag for Shabbat would be very expensive. Although PK is one of the best defencemen in the League, a Maple Leaf simply cannot pay the price to acquire him.

Another player could be had from the St. Louis Blues. Of course, the defenceman I am thinking about is Colton Parayko. The defenceman would help Toronto immensely.

This offseason should be an interesting one, to say the least. The critical point the Toronto Maple Leafs have to fix is the defensive zone coverage. It will be interesting to see how they go about doing that. Only time will tell.