Quoting: Rangsey
Are the Leafs actually cursed?
They luck into a lottery win and get the greatest player the franchise has ever seen, draft an elite play making winger to ride shotgun and the Norse god of Charm and handsomeness. Only for it to line up with the peaking of a modern day dynasty, the best years of the greatest defensive forward ever to take the ice and the birth of "well they can't call everything" hockey a state where anything is legal.
Then once/if they get out of their division/conference it's Vegas' core of T800 "Jack-Reacher is loosely based on my life" death machines, Connor McJesus or they get lucky and it's "only" Nathan MacKinnon and his band of merry men.
Side note. Has this sport ever been better than it is now?
The Leafs aren't cursed, they just made a string of poor decisions from 2018 onwards.
In 17-18, they likely should've moved guys like Komarov and JVR instead of losing them for nothing a few months later
This is the single most unpopular take I have, but they shouldn't have signed Tavares in July 2018. Guy didn't/doesn't fit the Leafs's window. He's 33, gonna be 34 in not even 6 months, and anyway, what the Leafs badly needed in 2018 was to build their defense around Rielly. Signing Tavares made it so that they didn't have the money to do it.
I'd even argue the Muzzin trade was bad. He didn't fit their window either, they gave up Durzi which was dumb, as a young, mobile RD-man was/is exactly what the Leafs needed and still need, in fact. I believe one of the main issues of their defense is that apart from Mo(who's one of my favorite players in the league), they don't have many offensive weapons. Durzi could've been a perfect 2nd RD-man in TOR.
I know Covid screwed their cap, but let's fact it, even in 2019, they were still in a massive cap hell. And it wasn't normal. A team should NOT be in a cap hell when it hasn't even won a round or two yet.
In short, I'd say they (Shanahan, Dubas, MLSE) rushed the Leafs's rebuilding process. In 2018, they should've resigned Bozak because he was a great fit in TOR and signed either Ian Cole or Calvin De Haan. Either one would've bought them some time to build their defense. They should've signed Nylander to an 8 years deal and showed up in 18-19 with a lineup like this:
Hyman-Matthews-Nylander
Marleau-Kadri-Marner
Johnsson-Bozak-Kapanen
Martin/Leivo/Ennis/Moore-Defensive 4C-Brown
Rielly-Cole/De Haan
Gardiner-Hainsey
Dermott-Zaitsev
Andersen
McLehinney
In 18-19, Nylander was playing in his 3rd full NHL season and Marner and Matthews were playing in their third one as well. They weren't ready to compete right away. And the Leafs's prospect pool still lacked depth. For the 2018, 19 and I'd even argue 2020 drafts, they should've continued to build a superb organizational depth and gone all in starting in 2020-2021 instead of 18-19.