You cannot win with the atrocious goaltending the Leafs have gotten all year.
The TAMPA BAY LIGHTING aka one of the best teams in the NHL were literally in 11th at one point when Vassy was sub 900.
The problem is twofold, Hutch should've had a shorter leash and Anderson has been awful relative to his capacity.
At the end of the day a top 4 of:
Rielly-Muzzin
Dermott-Barrie
Is totally fine, it's not the best by any stretch of the imagination, but let's not act like it's the worst either. The Leafs goalies get plenty of support from the offense too considering they are basically tied with Tampa for goals scored.
Marner is not the problem, a 100 point pace player cannot ever be the problem
Tavares is not the problem, having Tavares playing his last 2 years basically as he has played the previous 5 is fine, having 11 million in useless cap space does nothing for the team, 11 million would be used for what exactly? And what do we do at 2C?
You wanna know the difference between Toronto and Boston?
Boston save percentage: 923
Toronto save percentage: 898
Take Boston down to sub 900 and see how good they are, take Toronto up to 923 and see how good they are and yes I'm aware this is a function of D as well, but Toronto is basically the best offense in the league, if they didn't have nearly the worst goaltending in the league, they'd be in a fine playoff position.
If you're going to lament losing Kadri, at least get it right, the Bruins series was basically a tossup that Babcock ruined on his own WITHOUT Kadri. No Kadri's 36 points vs Barries 33 and Kerfoot's 25 is not some magical answer.
This season is whatever, too many injuries, should've fired Babcock earlier, should've got a backup earlier. I don't care if they buy or sell, but don't delude yourself, this team isn't some awful team that is "far away from contending," it's basically the same team as last year+injuries+awful Babcock coaching+horrendous goaltending. If this team is far away from contending, so is the team that took the SCFinalists to game 7.
Personally, I would just go all in and trade all the draft picks available this year to try and salvage this year because a team with that disgusting offense can always win or if people have hardons for Kap or Johnsson or Barrie, I'm totally fine selling the house.