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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been quieter than most in free agency thus far, making news for deals that did not get done as opposed to those that did.
Chris Johnston of the appropriately named The Chris Johnston Show reported that Jeff Skinner turned down signing with the team, despite news that “the Leafs specifically pitched the idea of playing on a line with Auston Matthews and [Mitch] Marner.”
It was not that long ago, the Leafs were a destination team. They were a team that attracted free agents in the pursuit of winning the club its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
Add to it the history and prestige of playing with the organization the fact that Matthews and Marner were two of the best players in professional hockey and you had even more reason for free agents and trade candidates to seek out Toronto as a potential landing place.
That Skinner turned down the opportunity to go to the team and specifically play with Matthews and Marner suggests a change in the NHL universe.
Matthews and Marner are still excellent, with the former setting a team record for goals in a season and both leading their team to the playoffs again.
It is what happens in the playoffs, though, that may very well be adversely affecting players’ desire to play there.
The team has been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs six of the last eight seasons, including 2023-24. They have not made the conference finals since 1999. For all of the prestige and honor that comes with playing for the Maple Leafs, an organization that is to hockey what the New York Yankees are to baseball, its inability to get over the hump and win a championship is astonishing.
That the teams, including some excellent ones that have employed high-powered offenses, have failed to show up and play championship hockey, is also surprising.
Worst of all, the fact that ownership and the front office have yet to figure it out, despite having two of the best players in the game in Matthews and Hall of Famer Mats Sundin during that span, is an indictment of their ability to construct a championship squad.
Against that particular backdrop, it is not surprising that a veteran such as Skinner might be hesitant to leave Buffalo, just over the US-Canada border from Toronto, would want to join the Leafs.
He ultimately signed with Edmonton on a one-year, $3 million deal.
That team has the best player in the world in Connor McDavid and had managed to build a team around him that is constructed specifically to excel in high-pressure situations and big-time playoff games, of which there were plenty this past season.
That Toronto is Skinner’s hometown team and that he had never played in a single playoff game, but still passed on the opportunity to suit up for the Leafs only highlights that the team is no longer the championship destination it was previously for players looking to make money in the pursuit of making history.
Will the Leafs still be good next year, with Matthews leading the way as one of the league’s premier scorers?
Yes, but he will have to do it knowing the Leafs failed to secure one of the best wingers in free agency because he believed he had a better chance to win elsewhere than in a city that eats and breaths the sport of hockey.
