I'm not really sure where the Leafs go from here. This was a brutal collapse. They were the heaviest first round favorite in the history of Dom's model at 83%. The pandemic gifted them a golden road to the semi-final's. No Boston. No Tampa. All they had to do was beat a Montreal team they were 18 points better than in the regular season. Then beat a Jets team they cleared by 14 points. They gagged it away.
They've kind of done a zig zag on their direction. The core has remained the same but they've about faced a few times on the margins. They started off trying to load up on as much skill as possible, forget about grit. This year they changed direction and decided maybe some veteran experience would be useful to a skilled core that has struggled to get over the first round hump. They kept Spezza, added Wayne Simmonds, Joe Thornton, Zach Bogosian and doubled (tripled!?) down by trading a 1st, 4th, 4th and a 6th for Nick Foligno and Riley Nash at the deadline. Oops.
Among the stars, Marner seems to be the one with the most anger directed towards him. He hasn't scored in 18 straight playoff games (though in fairness he's a playmarker more than a goal scorer). Matthews had a down series production wise, 1 g 4 a in the 7 games. He picked a bad time to enter a shooting slump, posting a Hall-in-Buffalo like 2.9% after finishing the regular season at 18.5%. Those sort of runs happen, but you can't really play through it in a short series. Especially when the cap (Kapanen, Johnsson) and injuries (Tavares) sapped your depth. There always seems to be some ire directed towards Nylander but he's arguably been their best forward in the playoffs over the last 2 years.
We'll see what they do. I don't see much of a path towards improving. They have a lower end farm system. They've traded away their 1st, 3rd, 4th and 7th in the upcoming 2021 draft. They've already spent their 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th in 2022 on trades too. They have $69 million already committed against the $81.5 million cap for 2022. Hyman is their main UFA to re-sign. Freddy Andersen too, but I think he's gone with Campbell having taking over the reigns. I think it's going to be difficult for them to trade a star for equal value. Marner makes $10.9 million which is going to severely limit his suitors. Tavares has a NMC. Matthews is probably not going anywhere. Nylander could be dangled at a tad under $7 million but again, not easy to move big salaries in this flat cap environment.
Just doesn't seem like there is a clear path forward for them.