Which Leaf team in recent years were the strongest?

[png57]

Obviously most (if not all) of them underachieved during the playoffs. However I'm just interested to know which year's team people think are the strongest and feel most shameful about not doing enough damage in postseason.

I will personally go with the '22-'23 Leafs. The forward depth (especially with O'Rielly and Acciari) was incredible.

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[Jojalu]

Obviously most (if not all) of them underachieved during the playoffs. However I'm just interested to know which year's team people think are the strongest and feel most shameful about not doing enough damage in postseason.

I will personally go with the '22-'23 Leafs. The forward depth (especially with O'Rielly and Acciari) was incredible.

I liked the mix this year.

Interesting to take last years forwards and this years D.

 

[Dreakmur]

The post-deadline team of 2022-23 was probably the strongest. The price paid at the deadline to create that roster was steep, and will probably have long-term effects.

 

[LeafEgo]

Obviously most (if not all) of them underachieved during the playoffs. However I'm just interested to know which year's team people think are the strongest and feel most shameful about not doing enough damage in postseason.

I will personally go with the '22-'23 Leafs. The forward depth (especially with O'Rielly and Acciari) was incredible.

I felt pretty good about that 22-23 team, taught me something about changing a third of the lineup that late in the season. Surprisingly might have been our worst showing yet, despite the one win. Also cost us multiple firsts and seconds.

This year was the only year our team met the threshold of having a punchers chance. But not good enough yet.

 

[Jojalu]

I felt pretty good about that 22-23 team, taught me something about changing a third of the lineup that late in the season. Surprisingly might have been our worst showing yet, despite the one win. Also cost us multiple firsts and seconds.

This year was the only year our team met the threshold of having a punchers chance. But not good enough yet.

At least they still have McCabe. Already harsh, but at least he took a step forward this year

 

[Buds17]

I'd really like to vote for the '22-'23 team as the strongest and for being the one out of the lot to win that elusive playoff round. I unfortunately just can't bring myself to do so because of that '20-'21 team which finished first in a one-off division and had such a different path to navigate in order to move forward (since the OP also mentioned the feeling of shame for a/the team not doing enough in the postseason).

 

[BayStBullies]

Yup, it's the offseason...

 

[Bomber0104]

The post-deadline team of 2022-23 was probably the strongest. The price paid at the deadline to create that roster was steep, and will probably have long-term effects.

Can basically end the thread with this.

We lost half of our 1st and 2nd round picks in the next three drafts because of that idiot going all-in to save his job and reputation.

And it amounted to an extra 2 wins in the playoffs versus the usual 3 we get in the first round.

 

[Matty Sundin]

Preferred the 2018-19 team mostly due to Tavares being more in his prime, still having Kadri, Hyman. Too bad Nylander had a miserable year signing so late and not having a training camp.

 

[png57]

Preferred the 2018-19 team mostly due to Tavares being more in his prime, still having Kadri, Hyman. Too bad Nylander had a miserable year signing so late and not having a training camp.

Imagine if Marleau wasn't signed and his $6m cap hit was used on something else like d...

 

[Ianturnedbull]

Imagine if Marleau wasn't signed and his $6m cap hit was used on something else like d...

I can only speculate...


...same results.

 

[Nineteen67]

The post-deadline team of 2022-23 was probably the strongest. The price paid at the deadline to create that roster was steep, and will probably have long-term effects.

Typically when GMs make that many TDL deals it doesn’t work out immediately. Had Schenn and ROR stayed it may have turned out differently.

 

[Stephen]

Typically when GMs make that many TDL deals it doesn’t work out immediately. Had Schenn and ROR stayed it may have turned out differently.

Those one and done adds really hurt the Leafs as a franchise. The mileage Toronto has gotten from the McCabe deal is the kind of medium term solution you need from such a heavy price, or Edmonton with Ekholm. Pay a price and solve a problem for 2, 3 years. Not the annual playoff moonshots like Tyson Barrie, Nick Foligno, ROR, Acciari, etc.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

I felt confident with last season's team after the deadline and then Keefe started being a clown with his regular season line juggling. Just doing all sorts of weird stuff to end the regular season.

They never developed proper chemistry and of course the core went missing against Florida.

Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - William Nylander
Calle Järnkrok - John Tavares - Mitch Marner
Michael Bunting - Ryan O'Reilly - Noel Acciari
Zach Aston-Reese - David Kämpf - Alex Kerfoot

Morgan Rielly - Luke Schenn
Jake McCabe - TJ Brodie
Mark Giordano - Timothy Liljegren

Ilya Samsonov
Joseph Woll

That was a well-rounded group with the ability to match up against other team's top lines with good defensive options. Ilya was looking decent too.

Of course, the biggest missed opportunity was the North division year. Maybe not the strongest team but the strongest chance to go deep.

 

[Aashir Mallik]

22-23 had the best overall depth

17-18 or 18-19 had the best offensive depth + goaltending

 

[HamiltonNHL]

I voted Selena Gomez

 

[BrannigansLaw]

24-25: the one that doesn’t have Marner and Tavares on it.

 

[notDatsyuk]

23-24 - even with our two best players each missing games and playing under the weather for others, we were an OT goal away from our best playoff results.

The team was better, even if the result was marginally less so.

 

[Mickey Marner]

21-22 was the best team on ice even if a couple were arguably better on paper.

 

[Stephen]

You could even have an all-pain, all-Leafs playoffs bracket to crown the least mediocre Leafs team of this era. 3, 2, 1 go!

2016-17
2023-24

2017-18
2022-23

2018-19
2019-20

2020-21
2021-22

 

[Commander Clueless]

You could even have an all-pain, all-Leafs playoffs bracket to crown the least mediocre Leafs team of this era. 3, 2, 1 go!

2016-17
2023-24

2017-18
2022-23

2018-19
2019-20

2020-21
2021-22

They all lose in the first round and the league is forced to cancel the playoffs.

 

[Matty Sundin]

It was definitely more positive vibes to be a fan of this team 2018-19 since this core didn’t have that “choker” label on them yet.

 

[TMLBlueandWhite]

They're all equal.

It was the same team every time. The differences between them weren't significant. The team I had the highest hopes for was the first year they signed Tavares.

It's been nothing but one disappointment after another ever since.

I'm glad to see fans are finally starting to boo. Even if it is too little too late. The time to get angry was a couple years ago.

A few boo's now seems pretty redundant.

I have a hard time believing it's gonna be a quick fix. They already took a step backwards last year. Another one this year means missing the playoffs.

That would make it the weakest team since Matthews was drafted.

 

[LEAFANFORLIFE23]

2021 and 2023 those are the teams I thought could do it,2021 because they were in the Canadian division and I thought they were going to crush that division and in the regular season they did then JT got kneed in the skull and the team rallied and won 3 straight and then Jack Campbell crumbled and allowed 3 0T goals on a total of 8 OT shots, because Jack Campbell isn't good at his job, proven by the fact that her spent this year in the minors.

2023 just ran into a buzz saw.

 

[Dale Gribble]

None of the above.

Skill we had, but missing what Tampa, St. Louis, and Vegas had. it was just the same variation with us year in and year out.