Auston Matthews heads into training camp under new head coach Jim Hiller, and the Maple Leafs are betting a completely reshaped roster fixes what went wrong.
Matthews put up 27 goals and 53 points in 60 games last season. That's his lowest point total since his rookie year.
He finished at a minus-4 rating with five power-play goals, modest numbers next to a $13,250,000 cap hit that ranks second highest in the entire NHL.
Toronto closed the year 32-36-14 for 78 points, and dropped the final seven games in a row to end the season on a full spiral.
The front office didn't sit still. Sergei Bobrovsky is now in net, Darren Raddysh anchors the back end, and Colton Sissons, Nick Paul, and Teddy Blueger add real depth up front.
That group gives Hiller a bottom six built to absorb tough defensive matchups, something Matthews rarely had around him before.
Why was a $13 million goal scorer spending so much energy chasing other team's top centers instead of hunting the net? Nobody in Toronto had a great answer last year.
Darren Raddysh could unlock Matthews on the power play
Raddysh put up 22 goals and 70 points last season with 10 power-play goals and 16 power-play assists, the kind of shot from the point Matthews hasn't had feeding him in years.
A real bomb from the blue line drags defenders away from the circle, and that's exactly the space Matthews needs to keep unloading one-timers.
Matthew Knies remains the most logical fit next to Matthews. Knies posted 66 points in 79 games last year, and that chemistry shouldn't get broken up in camp.
Jack Roslovic scored 21 goals in 69 games last season and gives Hiller another option down the middle if he wants to keep Matthews' line pure offense.
Morgan Rielly is still on this blue line too, coming off 36 points in 78 games, but the real shift on that unit is Raddysh's shot from the half wall.
Mitch Marner is gone, now with Vegas, which means this is the first full season Matthews builds his top six from scratch without him.
Hiller was hired on June 17, and how fast he commits to a stable top line will say a lot about how quickly Toronto expects results.
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There's no hiding from that $13,250,000 cap hit anymore. Either Matthews looks like himself again, or this front office has a much bigger problem heading into next spring.
Should the blame for Auston Matthews' down season fall on the coaching staff and not on Matthews himself?
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