NHL Insights: Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and New Jersey Devils

Welcome to another edition of NHL Insights. Even with the Stanley Cup Final rolling on it was a good time to bring it back with a couple of days off between games. The offseason has gotten underway with changes around the league especially in big markets. The teams we look at today all fell in the second round of the playoffs. Two had expectations, while one you could say overachieved. Those teams include the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and New Jersey Devils.

Every team hopes to win the Stanley Cup when the season ends. Two teams in particular the Maple Leafs and Oilers believed that this was their year. Especially Toronto. Both made excellent trade deadline acquisitions, but once again their weaknesses were exposed in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Then there is the New Jersey Devils who made an unexpected trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and won a round before their weakness got exposed by Carolina. All three teams have a busy offseason ahead as they look to get back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs and win it all next year.  In this edition of NHL Insights, we look at the Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, and New Jersey Devils.

Time to dive into some NHL Insights for the past week.

NHL Insights: Maple Leafs, Oilers, and Devils

Toronto Maple Leafs

Let’s begin with the center of the hockey universe. The Toronto Maple Leafs finally won a playoff round. They beat the Tampa Bay Lightning in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After taking strides, the Leafs appeared to have learned from past playoff mistakes. They won three come-from-behind games in overtime on the road in the playoffs to advance to Round 2. However, they reverted back to their old ways as the Florida Panthers exposed their defence.

After the season was over the players had the breakup interviews and the Core 4 indicated they wanted to come back. Then the saga with Kyle Dubas began. Did he or didn’t he want to come back to the Maple Leafs? Well, Brendan Shanahan made the decision for Dubas when the team did not renew his contract thus making him a free agent to take a job with the Pittsburgh Penguins as the President of Hockey Operations. If he had stayed he had the same amount of work to do with the Leafs as he does with the Penguins.

Enter Brad Treliving as the new general manager of the Maple Leafs. Treliving knows he has work to do. The Maple Leafs are talented and won’t change just to make changes. He wants to improve the team. Obviously, the priority is Auston Matthews and what to do with the rest of the roster. It is not just about Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares. It is about the 23-man roster as a whole. And he wants to make that better.

It will be an interesting off-season in Toronto for sure.

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Edmonton Oilers

Then there are the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers had a disappointing ending to their season losing in six games to the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But like always the Oilers defence and goaltending were exposed. How many years we have been saying it the Oilers need to upgrade their goaltending and defence under the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl regime? It seems like every year. Unfortunately, again it was a weakness even though Mattias Ekholm was a great addition, it was not enough.

It is all well and good you can score goals, but the Oilers couldn’t defend and that was a problem. Their power play was the best in the league. Leon Draisaitl led the league with the most power-play goals, but guess what it did not matter because the Golden Knights adjusted and were able to expose Stuart Skinner. It is a problem when the Oilers have zero confidence in Jack Campbell, a player they signed in the offseason, and did not let him see a start in that series.

It will be interesting to see what the Oilers do in that position. Both McDavid and Draisaitl voiced their frustration about how losing stinks. They do not want to feel that way anymore. Those two want to win and win badly. Like the Maple Leafs, the Oilers are up against the cap, so they will have to clear some money. It will be interesting to see what direction they go in.

New Jersey Devils

Finally, there is the New Jersey Devils. The Devils had a great season that nobody saw coming even their general manager. Tom Fitzgerald even said so at the end of the year media availability. But the Devils have shown they are going to be a force in the upcoming years as they only get better. Remember this is a young team. This was their first trip to the playoffs since 2018. New Jersey showed no quit and the mentality of what it takes to win the playoffs, but now they have to back it up next year.

However, their bubble got burst in Round 2 going up against a more experienced team. The poor starts caught up with the Devils. New Jersey is a team built for the future under Tom Fitzgerald. They are an exciting young team that is only getting better. But now the real work begins as he tries to sign RFAs Jesper Bratt and Timo Meier to long-term extensions under a salary hierarchy. There are questions again around goaltending. It is Akira Schmid‘s net? What about Vitek Vanecek? How does Mackenzie Blackwood fit into the mix? If at all?

Not to mention Ryan Graves, Damon Severson(now traded to Columbus), Erik Haula, Tomas Tatar, and the other free agents, the Devils may or may not re-sign. There is work to do to keep this team competitive. But the future is bright with Nico Hsicher, Jack Hughes, Dawson Mercer, and Luke Hughes leading the way.

That does for this edition of NHL Insights. Stay tuned for another edition in the coming weeks.