Maple Leafs' Focus on 'Grit' Proving Costly to Addressing Depth

February 2, 2024 JP Gambatese writes:

Every season, the story seems to be the same — the Toronto Maple Leafs consistently perform well during the regular season, comfortably keeping themselves in a playoff spot year-round, only to fall short in the playoffs. This season, though, their regular-season success is faltering. They sit in the first wild-card spot, though they were expected to frontline the Atlantic Division again. Their problem? Depth scoring.

General manager Brad Treliving was brought in to pilot the team in May 2023, and his biggest priority was adding what he called “snot” or grit. The narrative was that the Maple Leafs were too “soft” to compete for the Cup and that their lack of grittiness was holding them back from postseason success. After all, hits increase in the playoffs.

Whether or not that’s the case — that grit means postseason success — is beside the point. There’s nothing inherently wrong with gritty players, but those players need to perform on top of their physical play. Skilled grit is a coveted asset in the league, with players like Timo Meier, J.T. Miller, Tom Wilson, and the Tkachuk brothers revered for holding their own physically while providing offensive as well.

That’s where Toronto has gone wrong. The grit they have added and targeted over the past few seasons has been somewhat skillless. Rather than focus on adding depth scoring, regardless of physicality, the team has focused far too much on the latter, and it has cost them dearly.

Read Maple Leafs’ Focus on ‘Grit’ Proving Costly to Addressing Depth