The Toronto Maple Leafs' "Core Four" star forwards haven't put up eye-popping numbers to start the season after a summer of uncertainty about their future.
Update: The stats for this story were updated after the Toronto Maple Leafs lost 5-1 Thursday night.
The Toronto Maple Leafs went into the off-season with calls to break up the “Core Four.” That didn't happen.
The team has lost three of their last four games after Thursday night's ugly 5-1 loss against the St. Louis Blues, putting them at 4-4-0. That's mediocre.
That means their much-hyped Core Four of talent – star forwards Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares – remain under the microscope to begin the season.
Their combined offense totals – 11 goals and 24 points in eight games – are fair, but none of them are near the top of the NHL scoring race.
If we’re breaking things down, Nylander (with a team-best five goals) and Marner (with a team-best six assists) are putting up some numbers at a pace that's in line with their high-end salaries. Marner is on pace for 70 assists, which would be one more than his career-high 69 helpers in 2022-23.
With that said, Marner also had 30 goals in that 2022-23 campaign. Right now, he is on pace for 10 goals, meaning he has some catching up to do after the earliest stages of this season.
It’s not as if Matthews – three goals and five points – and Tavares – two goals and five points – are struggling mightily. But when the Core Four’s combined salary cap hit is nearly $47 million – more than half of the entire team’s $88-million cap hit – you have to think there’s something more they should be doing to translate the chances into results.
Nylander has been the best of the bunch, looking engaged and capable of ratcheting his game up to new levels, but the other three could definitely be doing more.
For starters, they can help improve Toronto's power play, which is 3-for-27 after Thursday night. Matthews can hit a goal-scoring stride and climb up to the top of the league's goal-scoring race. Tavares improved his faceoff win percentage – at 52 percent after his first six games – to 56.5 percent after Thursday, putting him closer to the near-60 percent he's had in the last three years.
The Core Four, specifically pending UFAs Marner and Tavares, have one last tryout to show the team they all deserve to return. Unless the Leafs get a good position for the playoffs and go far, they're destined to be broken up. The Buds cannot justify running it back with all four members if they can’t produce at least a couple of playoff series wins next spring.
There have been flashes of excellence from Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Tavares, just as there has always been in the last six years they’ve played together. But Leafs fans are through with excuses. They either want to see major progress or a different blueprint for success. A setback in the stats department during the regular season wouldn't set them up ideally for the playoffs, so they'll also benefit from exceeding a point-per-game pace during the regular season.
In many ways – especially on defense – Maple Leafs GM Brad Treliving has drastically improved and remade the Leafs’ attack. But as many have said for some time now, it all comes down to the Core Four. Given the Buds lost to subpar teams in Montreal and Columbus as part of their 4-4-0 start – the seeds of anguish have been planted early this season.
Nothing less than season-long success will calm Leafs Nation, and if you call that a boatload of pressure, so be it. It comes with the territory for some of the highest-paid players in the sport.
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