Buyer's Remorse: Did the Maple Leafs do enough to secure depth scoring?

The NHL has officially reached the dog days of the season. Where grinding out wins and goals from unlikely sources is the name of the game. The Toronto Maple Leafs, under the tutelage of new head coach Craig Berube, has reached new heights when it comes to defensive play. But while the system may be different from the previous under former coach Sheldon Keefe, it seems that the same problem is springing up - where are the goals?

But the issue of scoring goals normally only pops up during the playoffs. Last years series against the Boston Bruins, who seem to haunt the Leafs during late April, was emblamatic of the problem. The team fought back from a 3-1 series deficit, despite several injured players including Auston Matthews missing several games, but in the end they could not score the goals needed to take down their Atlanta Division rivals.

After that series, the Leafs front office got to work over the summer, and all under the haze of another failed playoff run and wonder if this could be the last of the core four; made of up star forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares (hint: they are all still Leafs). Craig Berube becoming the new bench boss, plus the acquisitions of veteran defenseman Chris Tanev and goalkeeper Anthony Stolarz were the biggest and arguably best changes. The new look makes sense with general manager Brad Treliving and his emphasis on a bigger, harder style of play at the helm. Out the door went forwards like Tyler Bertuzzi, who though didn't completely light the league on fire during his time in Toronto, did find his groove towards the end of the season.

Fast forward to the start of February 2025 and the Leafs are on the same track they have been since the beginning of the Matthews-Marner era. They are securely in a playoff spot with a good chance to possibly win the division. Despite this fact, a stretch of mediorce play has once again highlighted the Leafs ironic fatal flaw. If the four best, and highest paid, players are not going, then who will. It is often feast or famine when it comes to goals for Toronto.

Maple Leafs need more depth scoring if they want to win a Stanley Cup

The Maple Leafs have scored one goal or fewer in five of their last eight games and scored just once in each of their three consecutive losses over the past week and a half.

Matthew Knies has shown flashes of brilliance but he continues to go in and out of the lineup because of injuries. Veteran Max Pacioretty has been a pleasant surprise with his physicality but with his injury history and his age, there is a level of caution surrounding playing him too much.

All eyes have fallen to Max Domi, who during the busy 2024 offseason signed a four-year extension worth $3.75 million annually, and his lack of scoring. Last season, much like Bertuzzi, it took some time for Domi to find his footing. It was not until he was placed alongside Matthews that things began to click. Domi only has three goals as of Jan. 31, the last one coming against the Buffalo Sabres back on Dec. 20. This goalless drought is highlighted by Toronto missing Tavares at centre. Though Domi has always been known far more as a playmaker than a scorer, his lack of putting the puck into the net is glaring at the moment.

Domi could possibly be having trouble adjusting to the new style of play under Berube. It becomes a chicken before the egg situation: is he playing third-line minutes as a makeshift center because his lack of scoring prowess and his defensive struggles or is that lack of scoring a byproduct of him not getting a chance to showcase himself in the top six with better players? Was not being more bullish on adding scoring help an oversight on Treliving's part?

One could argue that he did the best with what he had as the core four's cap hit is almost $47 million– more than half of the entire team's $88-million cap hit. Either way, creating a well-rounded team is much like playing wack-a-mole. Once you solve one problem (defense, goal tending), another will pop up (scoring).

It sounds cliche but Domi does need to shoot more. But even that may not solve Leafs' problems.

As the trade deadline is slowly but surely creeping up, many wonder how Treliving will handle tweaking any roster problems. There are a couple players they could go after if they do look to help the offensive. One name that was on the dart board was Brandon Saad, but he signed a one-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights. Other names bandied about are Nashville centre Ryan O’Reilly and Seattle forward Yanni Gourde. Ontario native O'Reilly made Toronto home after the 2023 trade deadline but decided not to re-sign, publicly saying that everything was just more "amplified" up north. Perhaps his tune has changed with his old coach, who he won a Stanley Cup with in St. Louis, behind the bench and Nashville's season not going as anyone planned.

While the lack of scoring in the regular season is a growing issue, everyone knows that the real test will come in April. Whether the Leafs manage to get back into the top seed in the Atlantic and play a wild card team or if they find themselves in familiar territory playing Eastern Conference titans in the Panthers, Lighting, or Bruins, how and how much they score will be put under a microscope come the time of the playoffs.