Shanahan's remarks on Friday imply major changes to Leafs' core

Brendan Shanahan spoke with the Toronto media on Friday and suggested that we could see a major culture shift this summer that would see the Leafs' core broken up.

Over the last 6 years, since John Tavares arrived in 2018 to complete the quartet of high-priced superstar forwards, along with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander, the team has struggled to find success in the postseason.

Losses in the 1st round have occurred in 5 of those 6 seasons, and if we stretch back to the Leafs' first playoff berth in the Matthews era in 2016-17, the Leafs have bowed out in Round 1 in 7 of 8 seasons. Shanahan did his best to emphasize that it's simply not good enough and that changes will be made to help improve the team this summer. He's leaving nothing off the table.




Shanahan did not get into specifics of who may or may not be shopped by the Leafs or asked to waive their no-movement clauses or no-trade clauses, but with Mitch Marner and John Tavares both having just 1 season remaining on their current contracts, it would stand to reason that any changes made to the core may begin there.

Another interesting possibility is that of potentially moving Morgan Rielly, who was very distraught following another 1st round loss to Boston. Rielly did not seem pleased in his media availability on Monday and while he still has 6 seasons remaining on his contract at $7.5M per season, he may be willing to waive his no-movement clause if it means having a chance to win.

We don't yet know what the future holds for this Maple Leafs team, but we do know that it will be a very busy offseason in Toronto and that this team will not likely approach this summer with a "run it back" mentality.