Toronto Maple Leafs season preview
2007-08 result: 36-35-11, 12th in Eastern Conference
Key arrivals: G Curtis Joseph, D Jeff Finger, D Mike Van Ryn, F Nik Hagman, F Ryan Hollweg, F Nicolai Kulemin, F Jamal Mayers, coach Ron Wilson
Key departures: D Bryan McCabe, D Andy Wozniewski, F Mats Sundin, F Darcy Tucker, F Kyle Wellwood, coach Paul Maurice
Offence: The Leafs didn't struggle to score last season, ranking 11th in the NHL with 2.78 goals per game. But they could have done better, considering their average of 31.0 shots was fifth-best in the league. Pricey winger Jason Blake was the most errant Leaf, plummeting from 40 goals the year before with the Islanders to 15 despite firing a career-high 332 shots.
Even with better marksmanship, goals figure to be harder to come by in the first year A.S. (After Sundin). With a team-high 32 goals and 46 assists in 74 contests, the big Swede was the only Leaf to come anywhere near a point-per-game pace.
Sundin's leadership, playmaking, and lethal off-wing shot on the power-play will be sorely missed. How sorely? The new No. 1 forward line could comprise Nik Antropov, Alex Ponikarovsky and Alex Steen. None managed more than 56 points last season.
Defence: Toronto coughed up 3.12 goals per game last season, fourth-highest in the league. What to blame? A horrendous penalty-killing unit that posted a 78.1 per cent success rate — worse than every team but the L.A. Kings.
The Leafs' goal prevention could improve after the heavy-legged McCabe was shipped to Florida for Van Ryn. Late bloomer Finger (a plus-12 rating with just 40 penalty minutes last season for Colorado) ought to add stability to a skaky blue-line.
Goaltending: Vesa Toskala performed admirably behind a porous defence, posting a respectable .904 save percentage along with a 2.74 GAA in 66 games in his first season in Toronto. Too bad the Leafs wasted 19 appearances on awful Andrew Raycroft (3.92, .876), who got the boot in favour of the 41-year-old Joseph. Cujo (2.55, .906 in nine games last season with Calgary) should supply a viable backup option in his second stint with the Leafs. If not, he'll at least remind fans of better days.
Coaching: Wilson takes over for Maurice, who failed to guide the Leafs to the playoffs in two years at the helm.
Wilson, 53, comes with plenty of experience (518 wins in 1089 NHL games), but a questionable post-season resumé. Despite averaging 50 wins over the last two campaigns with San Jose — the trendy pick last year to win the Cup — Wilson was fired following his third straight second-round exit.
Outlook: With the Leafs yet to make the playoffs in the post-lockout era, interim general manager Cliff Fletcher is doing the right thing by shedding overpaid, underproducing veterans (see: McCabe, Tucker) in an effort to rebuild. Expect severe growing pains this year and maybe next, but at least some long-term thinking is finally in place after the wasteful reign of John Ferguson.
For now, Leaf Nation may be secretly hoping its stripped-down roster can lose enough games to have a shot at über-prospect John Tavares in next spring's draft.