The Toronto Maple Leafs extended their franchise-record playoff drought to six seasons last year, but they did move up five spots from 15th in the East in 2009-10 to 10th this past season.
That creates some reason for optimism in Toronto, but the fact remains that the Maple Leafs and the Florida Panthers are the only two teams in the NHL that have not qualified for the playoffs at least once since the owners' lockout.
Two years after mortgaging the future in a trade for Phil Kessel, general manager Brian Burke continued to tweak the roster this summer. The Leafs failed in their bid to land coveted free agent Brad Richards but did sign Tim Connolly away from Buffalo and added to their defense with a pair of trades for John-Michael Liles and Cody Franson.
2010-11 record: 37-34-11, 85 points (fourth Northeast Division, 10th Eastern Conference; did not qualify for playoffs)
Key additions: D John-Michael Liles (trade with Colorado); F Tim Connolly (free agent); F Matthew Lombardi (trade with Nashville); D Cody Franson (trade with Nashville); F Philippe Dupuis (free agent)
Key losses: F Tim Brent (signed with Carolina); F Fredrik Sjostrom (signed with Farjestads, Sweden); G Jean-Sebastien Giguere (signed with Colorado); F Christian Hanson (signed with Washington); D Brett Lebda (traded to Nashville)
Burning question: Is James Reimer the real deal in net?
The Leafs, the franchise that gave Tuukka Rask to the Bruins for the low, low price of Andrew Raycroft at the 2006 draft, have been searching for a legitimate No. 1 goalie ever since. They may have finally found their man in Reimer, who sparked Toronto's late-season rally with a 20-10-5 record, 2.60 goals-against average and .921 save percentage after being called up from the American Hockey League for good in January. NHL history is littered with examples of young goalies who made a huge splash in the league but didn't have the staying power to maintain that level of performance. Will Reimer suffer the same fate now that opposing shooters have a book on him? Or is he going to emerge as the next star netminder in the league?
The Leafs are banking on the latter, as they signed him to a three-year, $5.4 million extension this summer. Reimer's ability to maintain the level of play he exhibited late last year may be the biggest key to ending Toronto's postseason drought.
2011-12 outlook: The Leafs didn't get Richards but hope that Plan B will work out after adding Connolly. Connolly could be the playmaking center Toronto has lacked, but he has to stay healthy. Connolly has missed 190 games the past six years, sitting out an average of 32 games a season. He had only 13 goals and 29 assists for 42 points in 68 games last year. Despite some lengthy slumps, Kessel led the Leafs with 32-32-64 totals last year, while Clarke MacArthur proved a free-agent bargain with a 21-41-62 campaign. Mikhail Grabovski (29-29-58) and Nikolai Kulemin (30-27-57) give the Leafs' offense some additional punch.
Toronto added some skill to the back end by trading for Liles and Franson. They join captain Dion Phaneuf and youngsters Luke Schenn, a restricted free agent who still needs to be re-signed, Carl Gunnarsson and Keith Aulie on an improving blue line.
The Franson deal also brought center Matthew Lombardi to Toronto, and he could upgrade the skill up front if he can recover from the concussion that cost him the final 80 games of last season in Nashville.
Did you know? Kessel struggled mightily against his old club for his first season and a half in Toronto, failing to score a single goal with just one assist and a minus-6 rating in his first nine games against Boston. But Kessel finally found the range late last year. He scored twice in a 4-3 win at the Garden on Feb. 15, then added three assists in the final two meetings of the year, both Toronto victories.
