I take it a step further, there is even more time before the trade deadline.
For me, as long as the Leafs D is solid this team can ride any rough spots to the playoffs. Just get in position and rent as needed at the deadline.
Also, it may not be popular with the advanced stats only fans, but I have no worry whatsoever of running a 4th Simmonds and Clifford together with a tenacious centre while Kampf is a solid defensive 3rd line centre who can play responsibly with anyone.
I've been saying "balance up and down the lineup" since I was a young Padawan. Leafs best showing in my lifetime only had one scoring line, they now have two.
Leafs may not have improved, but I don't see them discernably worse. I really wish Boosh stayed though. That is a simple guy I feel helped create an identity they lack.
Let’s take it a step further, there’s even time before the ‘23 playoffs start, someone could pass through waivers and we could snatch them right up.
This thread reminds me of 3/4 of the Jays thread regulars who moan and groan about posters who lament the Jays performances and say it’s only May… only June… and then before you know it, the trade deadline comes and we’re 20 games back of the division and there’s 8 teams competing for the last WC spot, so why blow your wad when you’re not in a solid position.
The free agency well gets drier and drier the more resources get poached from it. It may only have been day 1, but we’ve seen a fair bit of movement, and our vaunted Leafs have NAK, a shot in the dark goalie to go with the blunted bullet that is Murray, and two AHLers to show for it.
Sure, there are some nice forward pieces still floating out there that could fit us (IMO): Milano, Niederreiter, Balcers, Raffl, Larson, ZAR, Heinen, Rask. But we have no money and Dubas shows no sign of parting with his Kerfoot obsession.
But these things move fast and it’s already nearly tumbleweeds out there with us needing a viable scoring 2LW, our D needing rework and a goalie situation that is a joke as of right now. Combine that with Dubas stating a run-back, there’s some soft alarms already ringing.