It seems fitting that 2023 started off with the Leafs being the focal point of the 32 Thoughts intermission segment on New Year’s Day. 2023 needs to be the year for the Leafs and while it is not necessarily a now or never season for the Leafs, it’s definitely a “why not now?” season for the organization and might in fact be a now or never season for Kyle Dubas.
Kyle Dubas has spent the better part of the last three years reaffirming his belief in the post Mike Babcock Leafs, and while there has been plenty of tinkering along the way, the core of the Leafs is very much intact and for all will they/won’t they about the Leafs, Toronto might ultimately do very little. That of course won’t stop us or others from talking about what the Leafs could do leading up to the deadline nonstop for the next two months.
So that brings us back to Elliotte Friedman’s comments. (Clip can be found here.) Friedman noted that to start the season the conventional wisdom was that the Leafs would be shopping for a defenseman. The injury to Jake Muzzin certainly made that look like a strong possibility and still does. The Leafs haven’t replaced him or preferably replaced who Jake Muzzin was two years ago. Instead they’ve managed to get b …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation