With the 2018 NHL trade deadline approaching, the Leafs have a playoff position all but locked down. Last year, we spent weeks leading up to the last week of the season thinking it could go wrong. Now, it’s February and most of the reliable prediction models have the Leafs at well over 90% chance of making the playoffs.
This is a whole new world we live in. But stuck around the margins of the Leafs are remnants of the pre-rebuild team —some expiring UFAs, some old free agent signings and a seeming excess of prospects at the borderline of the AHL and NHL.