In the aftermath of Monday’s Game 7 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, there have been plenty of questions about how the Toronto Maple Leafs will move forward.
Asked Wednesday about his top-four group, which consists of John Tavares, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander, Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan was clear: “We want to keep them here.”
Shanahan made it clear that while change will happen this summer, he believes fully in the core that’s already place.
“We are going to do this here in Toronto with this group. There will be changes that’ll be made, there’ll be tweaks along the way, of course. The team will evolve, the people will evolve. But we are going to get this done,” he said.
Up 3-1 in the first-round series, the Maple Leafs were unable to win when it mattered most, with the club’s top pair of Matthews and Marner effectively shut down. Marner, in particular, has been in the spotlight as his post-season struggles continued.
Addressing the Maple Leafs’ inability to close out the Canadiens, Shanahan said, “There’s a killer instinct that is missing that we need to address.”
