Maple Leafs given grave warning ahead of NHL's unusual 2-deadline trade season originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The headline on the national hockey website Daily Faceoff said it all on Wednesday:
"It's do-or-die for the Leafs after nightmarish homestand."
And while maybe just a bit over the top, it's also metaphorically quite true. The Toronto Maple Leafs are at a point of reckoning.
The odd structuring of this NHL season will make it that much trickier.
MORE: Why Craig Berube has a huge cut on his head
Because of the Olympic break, which will put a freeze on trades for two weeks, it's almost as if there are two trade deadlines.
"There’s also another roadblock in the Leafs’ deadline plans: the Olympic break," writes Daily Faceoff's Scott Maxwell. "With NHL rosters set to freeze from 3:00 p.m. ET on Feb. 8 to 11:59 p.m. ET on Feb. 22, it’s created a second trade deadline. Many teams are treating Feb. 4 as the first deadline to get players situated with new teams and cities before/over the Olympic break, assuming they aren’t playing in the tournament."
Once action resumes, it'll be a couple weeks before the real trade deadline in March.
Teams who are entirely out of the hunt right now can simply sell early, before the proverbial first deadline.
Teams that are in the middle ground, like the Maple Leafs, are stuck.
"They’re forced to watch from the sidelines," Maxwell writes. "They find themselves in the murky middle and unable to commit to one side of the market or the other, as the 4-5 games some teams have before the Olympic break, and the 4-6 they have after, are enough to push their season in one direction or the other. If they come out with points in seven or eight of the 10 games, they’re still in the playoff race. If they only win one or two games, the season may be over."
MORE: Sabres just broke an incredible franchise record
This entire era of the Maple Leafs could come to an end if they struggle before the Olympics.
There'd then be a couple weeks for the front office to prepare conceptual deals, and potentially finalize them once trades get activated again.
The Leafs are teetering on the brink. And in the stop-and-start of the next month-plus of the NHL season, they might just find themselves heading toward irrelevance in the playoff race.
More NHL news:
- Jason Robertson shows how big a mistake Team USA made
- Evgeni Malkin's future with the Penguins may have changed
- Evan Bouchard joins Bobby Orr in the history books
- This save from Tristan Jarry makes no sense after he lost his skate blade
- Maple Leafs can trade for veteran who already likes playing in Toronto
- Senators warned about looming trade of $57.5 million star
