Toronto Maple Leafs: Do they have the 2nd-best team in the NHL?

The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to take the next steps in their quest for a Stanley Cup, but do they have one of the best teams in the NHL?

The summer signing of John Tavares has given Toronto Maple Leafs fans a real sense of hope that the team can compete for the top prize in ice hockey, with the rest of the roster full of top young players ready to compete for many years.

The team’s 1-2-3 punch at centre includes Tavares, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri – a strength that gives the Leafs a competitive edge they have not had in over a decade.

The team also have players such as Mitch Marner and William Nylander, who have shown a penchant for scoring and causing opposition defences headaches.

Add to that the experience of Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner, as well as the capabilities of starting goaltender Frederik Andersen, and fans have every right to be confident.

But is the team they are likely to play at the start of next season the second-best in the entire NHL?

Conventional wisdom would make you think no, with the Leafs not yet to progress beyond the first round of the playoffs in the past two seasons.

But that’s not what Sean Tierney, writer and graph developer for The Athletic, thinks.

Tierney has developed a Tableau table that projects the line-ups of every NHL team for the 2018-19 season based on currently available players.

Each player is ranked either Elite (gold), Secondary Star Quality (green), Replacement-Level (blue) or Bad (red), relative to their role on the team.

Every player also has a points value and the Toronto Maple Leafs currently have the second-most points for their team, behind the Nashville Predators.

Matthews and Tavares are obviously ranked as Elite players, sitting as the team’s first and second line centres, with Nylander, Marner, Patrick Marleau and Zach Hyman all featuring on the wings for the top-two lines – ranked as Secondary Star Quality forwards.

More from Toronto Maple Leafs

• Maple Leafs Rumours: Half of NHL teams interested in Ilya Mikheyev
• Toronto Maple Leafs: How to address the goaltender position
• Leafs reward Timothy Liljegren with extension after breakout season
• Maple Leafs: Jack Campbell situation becoming increasingly uncertain
• Jason Spezza retires, joins Toronto Maple Leafs front office

Andreas Johnsson and Kadri are the other SSQ forwards, with Connor Brown interestingly being ranked ‘Bad’ as a third-line winger.

The Leafs’ fourth line projects to be Josh Leivo, Par Lindholm and Kasperi Kapanen – who have all received a ‘replacement-level’ ranking.

Mike Babcock’s team also sports a solid left side of defence, with Rielly, Gardiner and Travis Dermott all ranked as SSQs, while the right-hand side is significantly weaker.

Ron Hainsey is projected to partner Rielly on the top pairing, with Nikita Zaitsev partnering Gardiner and Connor Carrick with Dermott.

The entire right side of the defence is ranked as ‘replacement level’ and is projected to be the weakest part of the team.

Interestingly, also, Garret Sparks is the projected backup goaltender for the Leafs rather than incumbent Curtis McElhinney.

The Toronto Maple Leafs certainly have strong top-two forward lines, capable of scoring plenty of goals and giving the organisation a real threat on a par with many Stanley Cup contenders.

However, the right-side of defence could be an area for concern if performances do not improve, and it raises the question of whether or not the Leafs can truly be considered to have the second-best team in the NHL?

What do you think Toronto Maple Leafs fans? Is Tierney’s projected line-up really the second best in the NHL? Does the line-up give you hope for the season ahead? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!