During this offseason, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving has made his mark. Toronto’s defence is among those changes. The Leafs picked up three significant reinforcements for the blueline in free agency. They acquired the signing rights of Dallas Stars’ defenceman, Chris Tanev. The 34-year-old signed a six-year deal at $4.5M AAV with the Leafs before July 1. Later, in the free agency frenzy, Treliving signed Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who recently became a Stanley Cup champion with the Florida Panthers. Also, they acquired a physical presence at the back end, Jani Hakanpaa. However, his situation is a little more complicated as there is no guarantee that he’ll be able to play next season due to a serious knee injury. He is currently not an official member of the Leafs roster, and only time will make this situation clearer.
New Defence vs Old Defence
For the longest time, Toronto has always been known for its weaknesses on defence. Even though the season hasn’t started yet, there’s a chance for the Leafs to end those remarks. With the main additions made in the offseason, it could be said that Toronto has improved their blueline in comparison to last season.
Last Season
| Rielly | Brodie |
| McCabe | Liljegren |
| Benoit/Giordano | Lyubushkin/Klingberg |
There was also help from a few others who were either added near the deadline or acted as extra defencemen. Those include William Lagesson, Joel Edmundson, Maxime Lajoie, and Conor Timmins. The projected lineup for this upcoming season looks much better on paper.
Projected D-Pairings for 2024-25 Season
| Rielly | Tanev |
| Ekman-Larsson | Liljegren |
| Benoit | McCabe |
In addition to what Toronto’s defence pairings might look like on opening night, Treliving added a couple of safeties. He brought in Dakota Mermis and Philippe Myers on two-way contracts for some depth on defence. Both Treliving and new head coach Craig Berube believe in taking priority on the defensive end of the ice. So, add up all these ingredients together, and Toronto should have a much better defence next season.
Toronto’s Defence vs the Atlantic Division
For a little while now, the Atlantic Division has been a gruelling battle with so many playoff contenders. In fact, in the last six seasons, a team from the Atlantic Division has featured in the Stanley Cup Final. That goes to show how tough it is to get out of that division and make a deep playoff run. Naturally, every divisional matchup is vital in order to earn the favour in playoff seeding. It’s simple math, but having a better team is the key to defeating divisional counterparts. Here’s who Toronto’s biggest competition for the top spot in the Atlantic will be and how their defence compares.
Sunshine State Juggernauts
The phrase “defence wins championships” is very true, just ask the Tampa Bay Lightning or the Florida Panthers. And, in hockey, having a great goaltender is a necessity to win the Cup. Luckily for the Leafs, the two Sunshine State teams have lost some defencemen recently, making them a little thinner on the backend. The Lightning lost Mikhail Sergachev in a trade with Utah at the draft in return for J.J. Moser, among other assets. However, that doesn’t mean they’re weak defensively by any means. They still have Conn Smythe and Norris Trophy winner Victor Hedman. On top of that, they brought back shut-down defenceman and Cup champion Ryan McDonagh from the Nashville Predators.
As for Florida, their blueline looks much weaker for this upcoming season compared to last season. They lost a couple of D-men in the midst of their Stanley Cup celebrations. Brandon Montour played himself out of Florida by simply becoming too valuable to fit in general manager Bill Zito‘s budget. He was outstanding for the Cats, especially in the last two seasons. Now, he will be in Seattle playing for the Kraken on a seven-year deal. Josh Mahura will join Montour in Seattle as part of their D-corps. And finally, they also lost Ekman-Larsson to free agency, as mentioned, to the Leafs.
Beantown’s Backend
It seems that the Boston Bruins have no plans in slowing down, and general manager Don Sweeney made that statement this summer. Not only did they bring in a first-line centre in Elias Lindholm, they bolstered their defence with immense size, adding Nikita Zadorov, a player that Toronto was heavily interested in. The big, bad Bruins got bigger and badder with this acquisition of the 6-foot-6 blueliner.
Other than that, the Bruins’ backend didn’t change that much since their elimination from the playoffs. However, that may be because there is no reason to change things up. Boston’s defence, led by 26-year-old Charlie McAvoy, is solid in all aspects and lacks weaknesses on paper. In addition to McAvoy, the B’s have Hampus Lindholm and Brandon Carlo on the second pair. Even their third pairing is exceptional, with youngster Mason Lohrei and Andrew Peeke.
With all these intimidating defences, comparisons on paper are not sufficient. These Atlantic giants will have to wait for the regular season to know where they stand against each other.
Main photo: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
