The Maple Leafs ran it back again. It backfired again. What now?

BOSTON — The decision got here utmost summer time.

It was once from the pristine basic supervisor of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brad Treliving, and he had a message for Mitch Marner.

“He made it pretty clear that he wanted to keep our core together,” Marner instructed The Athletic utmost fall. “He trusted our core.”

What now for the Leafs and that core then but every other early playoff journey?

“It’s an empty feeling right now,” William Nylander stated in what’s change into an all too usual environment for the Leafs, an uninhabited dressing room then a painful playoff loss.

Nylander’s stick, emblazoned with “Willy Styles,” was once nonetheless status in opposition to a wall in a nook. It wasn’t lengthy then Recreation 7, and every other first-round journey. The temper was once dour.

“Look, I don’t think there’s an issue with the core,” Nylander stated. “I think we were f—— right there all series battling — battling hard. We got it to Game 7 OT. It’s a s—– feeling.”

Auston Matthews referred to as this actual Leafs group the tightest he’s ever been part of. “I feel like we say that every year, but it truly was an incredible group, incredibly tight,” he stated.

“We’re right there,” John Tavares stated. “It’s a very small difference.”

The consequences are what they’re despite the fact that. The Leafs haven’t gotten akin in any respect. Operating it again with this core — Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, and Morgan Rielly — has no longer labored.

The Leafs ran it again then they had been abash by way of an inferior Columbus Blue Jackets group in 2020. They ran it again then they allowed a 3-1 layout manage to soften away in opposition to the Montreal Canadiens, every other inferior opponent, in 2021. The Leafs ran it again once more then they misplaced in seven video games to the Tampa Bay Lightning a 12 months then that. And simply when it appeared like they might pivot utmost spring then shedding a five-game second-round layout to the Florida Panthers, group president Brendan Shanahan fired then-GM Kyle Dubas and insisted once more — with Treliving shifting into the GM’s chair — that the core was once staying put.

“Just being different doesn’t solve something,” Shanahan stated when he introduced Dubas’ firing.

And but, obviously, the situation quo didn’t remedy the rest both. If the rest, simply the other: The Leafs had been dispatched once more within the first around. Clawing again from a 3-1 layout shortage to pressure Recreation 7 doesn’t alternate the truth that operating it again yet another era backfired.

Is that this — in spite of everything — the era the Leafs pivot in a significant approach? And if this is the case, who will get to produce that decision? And what precisely does it heartless?

The query of operating it again has to incorporate the member of the core — control section — that by no means will get discussed: Shanahan.

Nobody is extra accountable for the Leafs operating again the similar peak stop of the roster for see you later with out playoff effects than him. If there was once somebody who believed within the energy of Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Tavares, and Rielly to get it completed, it was once him.

He believed over and time and again in spite of the effects.

Later 10 seasons as group president, Shanahan’s Leafs have gained one playoff around, which places them in the similar bracket as most of the worst groups within the league over the utmost decade.

It’s in reality roughly superb.

The Leafs had been a peak group within the ordinary season, and Shanahan merits credit score for that, however the purpose isn’t to win the ordinary season. It’s to win within the playoffs and sticking with the similar core crew hasn’t yielded the rest akin to a Stanley Cup.

Shedding in seven video games within the first around isn’t “right there” as Tavares instructed.

Shanahan met with the pristine president of MLSE, Keith Pelley, previous this month. Pelley must be asking why it’s that Shanahan caught with this actual crew for see you later when the effects weren’t there when it mattered and, crucially, what he plans to do about it now then every other defeat.

Will have to he even get that chance then a decade’s usefulness of possibilities?

Shanahan’s pondering went one thing like this: If the Leafs traded one in all their splendid gamers away each era that they had a playoff unhappiness, ultimately they may well be left without a splendid gamers.

He conceived that given enough quantity era, enough quantity scars, and enough quantity cracks within the postseason, the celebs would ultimately come thru and the group could be rewarded with the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1967.

The disorder: The celebrities weren’t starry enough quantity. Now not when it mattered. And in a top-heavy device, like the only the Leafs had been running with, the celebs need to be stars when it issues. They didn’t get there enough quantity, together with this spring in opposition to Boston.

Shanahan preferred to mention that sticking to the plan was once the hardened phase in Toronto.

Sticking to the plan for this lengthy despite the fact that has confirmed naive. Over and over again, it neglected the proof, which said, emphatically, that age the gamers in query had been proficient — arguably essentially the most proficient the franchise had ever perceptible — for no matter explanation why the combination didn’t paintings when the video games mattered maximum.

One thing was once lacking. And the Leafs will have attempted to handle it once in a while alongside the way in which. Perhaps it wouldn’t had been a sledgehammer to the core, however a scalpel. One piece carved out, every other other kind of piece slotted in.

Now, one thing will virtually undoubtedly alternate, a minimum of a 12 months too overdue.

The extenuating cases of this layout — Nylander’s absence for Video games 1-3 because of migraines, an weakness and trauma that derailed Matthews and knocked him out for Video games 5 and six — gained’t topic. They’re going to be as misplaced to historical past as Tavares lacking virtually everything of that Montreal layout to trauma or Sergei Bobrovsky changing into a superhero once more impulsively utmost spring.

The Pittsburgh Penguins gained a Stanley Cup with out Kris Letang in 2017. Steven Stamkos performed one playoff match for the Tampa Bay Lightning throughout their Stanley Cup run in 2020. The groups that win have the option.

The Leafs had a possibility to pivot in no matter path they preferred utmost offseason sooner than no-movement clauses kicked in at the pledges of Marner, Nylander, and Matthews.

The while for that was once July 1.

Had Dubas remained as GM, and perhaps even larger his keep watch over of the franchise, the Leafs can have in spite of everything shook up their core by way of shifting a type of gamers (Marner or Nylander) out. Rather, the whole lot that mattered, together with head schoolmaster Sheldon Keefe, stayed the similar.

Now a choice in regards to the core feels detectable.

Endmost summer time, the Leafs signed Matthews to a four-year extension that may quickly produce him the highest-paid participant within the league. Nylander were given a complete eight-year extension in January. Each gamers have complete no-movement clauses.

So does Tavares.

The captain of the Leafs shall be getting into the utmost 12 months of the seven-year pledge he signed again in 2018. Born and raised in Toronto, and now with a rising younger crowd, Tavares expressed no real interest in retirement utmost summer time when the chance was once raised by way of media.

Rielly likewise has a no-movement clause on a pledge that also has every other six seasons left on it.

Which leaves Marner, who’s eligible to signal an extension on July 1.

He, too, holds a no-movement clause, because of this he handiest is going in other places if he needs to. Which means that, at very best, a restricted puddle of groups the Leafs can exit him to — and thus, a restricted puddle of belongings they are able to fetch in go back.

Bring to mind it this manner: What number of groups in the market shall be considering a) taking over Marner’s $10.9 million cap clash for nearest season, b) need to pay him much more than that on an extension c) have horny belongings they might be keen to industry and belongings that will be of passion to the Leafs?

All of which is to mention, the Leafs boxed themselves in by way of ready so long as they did. It’s taking to be hardened to produce a just right industry involving Marner, if that’s the course they shoot.

Does the Maple Leafs’ life come with Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews in combination? (Nick Turchiaro / USA Nowadays)

If no longer then the Montreal layout, it felt like era for Marner then utmost season. He stated the entire proper issues about short of to be a Leaf, to stick a Leaf, however all over this date season, he regarded a bundle like any individual who wasn’t taking part in all that includes being a Leaf — the drive, the scrutiny, the grievance, the relentless call for for extra.

Marner’s destitute begin to the season was once noteceable for the way joyless he gave the impression, how void of eagerness and effort.

He completed with 3 issues in seven video games in opposition to the Bruins. He wasn’t the offensive difference-maker the Leafs wanted him to be, particularly early within the layout when Nylander was once absent.

He may well be simply as in a position for a transformation because the Leafs are. He was once ready for the likelihood utmost summer time.

Absent extension talks, and the potential of a long-term life in Toronto, he may well be satisfied to simply accept a industry in other places.

Next the query turns into: What must the Leafs glance to fetch in go back? It’s tempting to mention a defenceman, and that is probably not the unsuitable solution if it’s the correct defenceman. But it surely’s no longer as though this franchise is stocked with high-end forwards past Matthews and Nylander.

Can the entrance place of job, whoever’s operating it, yarn the needle and obtain a higher-end ahead and a defenceman? And what form of ahead anyway? If the purpose is to aim to switch the “mix” does it need to be a ahead of a special ability prepared than Marner? Any person more difficult and heavier to play games in opposition to?

Or, do the Leafs simply hunt down the most efficient conceivable participant, duration, probably incomes not up to Marner, and utility the difference cap length in other places?

Are draft selections a part of the bundle? Do the Leafs want to produce selections a part of the bundle given their restricted provide?

And once more, which group has what the Leafs need, meets Marner’s wants if he needs to release in any respect, and desires to pay him?

If they’re the 2 key gamers nonetheless operating the display, can Shanahan and Treliving get this proper? Their first season in combination as president and GM didn’t progress splendid. They didn’t adequately cope with wishes utmost summer time and nearest let the industry cut-off date come and progress with none significant reinforcements, which resulted in but every other first-round loss.

Can they explode a Marner do business in some way that makes the Leafs higher, or at worst, other?

As Treliving himself stated utmost summer time when the chance of shifting core gamers got here up at his introductory press convention, “You can throw a body under the tarmac and it might look good for a headline, but are you getting any better? At the end of the day, it’s about getting better. And just being different doesn’t necessarily make you better.”

Now not anymore. The Leafs want to be other and recuperate on the identical era. Operating it again — once more — isn’t an possibility.

(Manage picture of John Tavares, Tyler Bertuzzi and Morgan Rielly: Michael Dwyer / The Related Press)