NOt sure why you would think this is not as strong as last year! Dominic Moore has some of the best defensive metrics and one of the best face off % in the league, and we will have him for the whole season let alone the 2 months we had a solid Brian Boyle! Hainsey has far more value than that of Polak, although we may still see Polak brought back! The 200 ft. game of Marleau will play well, and his experience on the PP, will help the kids. Matthiews, only 4 of his 40 goals on PP in particular!

Actually, Dominic Moore's stats at 5-on-5, especially against elite opposition (now easily available on the PuckIQ website) aren't very strong, a bit lower than Boyle's. On the penalty killing, however, Moore is definitely efficient, more so than Boyle. And it's true that on face-offs, he is among the league's best - along with "face-off wizard" Bozak. And if Moore plays with Hyman as his RW, which seems like a possibility with the acquisition of Marleau, this may help improve the fourth line at 5-on-5. The real checking line for the Leafs, however, remains Komarov-Kadri-Brown. It's a pretty strong trio against tough opposition, and it should remain intact this year.

These last points should not be neglected. Overall, the net change is a (small) improvement compared to last year. With Moore, we have solid options for the PK, and further added skills on key face-offs in the defensive zone. In particular, I think the Leafs will be able to stay in the league's top 10 on the PK. Same for the PP with the addition of Marleau.

How well we perform this year depends a lot on the turnout of the young players, so there's uncertainty. But I think the team will remain an offensive powerhouse.

Our biggest weakness is by far shot suppression. We were one of the worst teams last year. This is how we lose too many games. And we haven't really improved. As I repeated many times on these pages, we needed strong shutdown players. Someone like a solid stay-at-home defenseman who plays lots of minutes, painful to play against, ideally right-handed. But it seems like improvements will have to come from coaching and the existing players. Without additional changes, we'll likely end up about the same place as last year, competing for a playoff spot, bringing some amazement but losing a number of critical games.

Trouble when folks come up with statistics on last year, they don't break down the season into let's say the first 41 games to last 41 games.
The Leafs overall defensive play was poor in the first half of the year....I attribute it partly to personnel but mostly that so much of the Leaf team were rookies and/or just playing as Leafs for the first teams.
So while their is great logic that the as "antonc" suggested that improvement has to be within, well some it happened last year in the second half of the season.
So to even suggest the Leafs haven't improved greatly from Oct 1, 2016 to Oct 1 2017 isn't true, even if the personnel is greatly the same.

Guess which Pens Dman logged the most minutes in the playoffs.....Cup winning Hainsey. Pens won the Cup with pretty much "an average defence" On this site their is a lot of delirium thinking the Leafs needs a top stud defenceman to be successful. Really? Hedman, Doughty didn't make the playoffs last year. OEL rarely has. And I believe Karlsson only last year was on a team that won one play round. So really it just fantasy that a top Dmen alone is going to make such a difference a team, year after year.

That been said, the Leafs will have to play well (as will many teams) just to make the playoffs. But as we have seen in past few years. Nashville were Cup finalists despite finishing eighth overall in the Conference, and the Kings won a Cup with a eighth place finish. There isn't a heck of difference between the 8th overall team and the 20th teams.

You make some good points, palhal. The team has already improved during the previous season, so let's not underestimate what they are able to do this year.

A few more things. I pay a lot of attention to stats, but I believe there is truth in numbers. The two best defensemen we have right now in terms of reducing scoring chances (Corsi against) are Gardiner and Carrick. It's not something spectacular, but being able to suppress shots amounts to fewer goals, and more wins, so these two players matter a great deal. Zaitsev does not do well in that regard (he compensates with offensive skills), and neither does Rielly. The coaching staff needs to keep working with these two. This is where the acquisition of Hainsey matters. I would have preferred a younger player, and right handed (e.g. Tanev), but Hainsey is capable. By having one good suppression player on each pair (Rielly-Hainsey, Gardiner-Zaitsev, Marincin-Carrick), we have a much more balanced defensive squad compared to the beginning of the previous year (when Rielly often played with Zaitsev). So that counts as an improvement as well.