A respected NHL figure just made a jaw-dropping Maple Leafs prediction

Bruce Boudreau isn't buying it. Not the Maple Leafs, not next season, not with this blue line.

The former NHL coach made that clear Wednesday on Leafs Morning Take, sitting down for a segment that didn't take long to turn blunt.

Asked directly if he thinks Toronto makes the playoffs next season, Boudreau didn't hesitate.

"I really don't think they will," he said.

His reasoning wasn't about goaltending or the top six. It was about miles on the odometer.

Boudreau pointed to an aging blue line trying to survive an 84-game grind, and that's not a small concern for a team that just finished 32-36-14.

Toronto closed last season ranked 28th overall, with a minus-46 goal differential and a seven-game losing streak to end it.

Aging blue line becomes Boudreau's biggest red flag for Toronto

The names back him up. Chris Tanev is 36. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is 35. Morgan Rielly and Jake McCabe are both 32.

That's four of Toronto's top defensemen already past the point where teams start managing minutes, not adding them.

Rielly still carries a $7,500,000 cap hit. Ekman-Larsson sits at $3,500,000. Neither contract is going anywhere soon.

Behind them? Emil Andrae, 24. William Villeneuve, 24. Cole McWard, 25. Kids who combined for one point last season between them.

Is that the group that survives a full grind against the East's best? Because Boudreau clearly doesn't think so, and he's not exactly wrong to wonder.

New head coach Jim Hiller was hired June 17, walking straight into that math without having touched a single game yet.

Here's the analogy that fits. Asking this blue line to go another 82 games is like sending a car with 200,000 miles on it out for one more cross-country trip. It might make it. It might not.

Boudreau isn't guaranteeing disaster. He's just saying the odds aren't great, and honestly, the numbers back him more than they argue against him.

Whether Toronto's front office agrees, or decides to do something about it before training camp, is still an open question nobody in that segment answered.