Trade Deadline season has come to a close. For better or worse this is the Leafs’ team we will be living and dying by come the playoffs. It’s worth remembering that this was very much billed as the last stand for this core, and Dubas wanted a final kick at the can with this group to show that they can make it beyond the first round.
In that sense, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that changes were kept to a minimum. It’s also interesting that really only Dermott found himself as a 2020-21 team member on the way out. Nick Ritchie departing and the attempted waiving of Petr Mrazek were attempts at undoing the worst aspects of the last offseason.
In a sense, we can already say that Ondrej Kase, Michael Bunting, and David Kampf have already taken huge steps to improve the Leafs. The addition of Ilya Lyubushkin also seemed like a positive. So here we are with Mark Giordano and Colin Blackwell in the fold. Neither addressed the goaltending question mark. Giordano is another left-side defender, and Blackwell might get his shot with Tavares and Nylander, but he’s not a bona fide top-six forward by any means. That begs the questions:
What did yo …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation