Toronto is a team of mercenaries.
They tanked which is always perilous because then you're counting on your young teen players with special skills to be special people.
Crosby was (they didn't tank, they were a poverty franchise for a bit due to ownership woes), McDavid is special. The Leafs core has a bunch of laissez faire guys.
Nylander is impervious to pressure, but he also isn't really a self-starter and won't inspire anyone else. He could be part of a good team on a team with a leader/culture.
Marner is a petulant whiner. His dad is a dumbass who has seemed to just whine and leverage his son's immense talent to get special treatment.
What a shock when his son crumbles under adversity and cries to the ref when things don't go his way.
Matthews is incredibly talented, but I don't think he cares a lot about Toronto or their legacy. I think he likes being famous, and is amazing at what he does. With his size, if he had Mackinnon's mentality he literally would be close to as good as McDavid. But as it is, he seems content to get his regular season cookies and look forward to the post game parties in the playoffs.
Tavares is incredibly milquetoast and not going to inspire anyone. It's funny because on the Islanders there were a couple of times it felt like he picked his team up by the scruff of the neck, but against Toronto he's a threat if the puck finds him in the slot, otherwise he's irrelevant.
Morgan Rielly should be the captain and it's not even close. It's incredible to think that it's so apparent from out here and yet within the dressing room they miscast Tavares so poorly.
Having all of this money tied up in 4 of the same type of forwards means that the Leafs bring in new 'depth' every single year. Well, since all of them know that there's no chance they are coming back, they can't sway the 'core' because they're all substitute teachers.
So what do they do? They probably leverage the increased interest (since it's the Leafs) into a higher next contract.
So it's mercenaries getting the most money, and then mercenary mentalities for veterans who know they can't be there more than 9 months.
This will go down in history as a criminal misuse of talent by the Leafs' braintrust. It all started with the extra year for Marleau, signing Tavares, and dealing Kadri for Barrie.
As a Leaf's hater whose own team was basically hopeless for 85% of the last 8 years, I thank the Leafs for giving me mirth. But for Leaf's fans it must be absolutely heartbreaking and I do feel bad for those people.