The Toronto Maple Leafs are hoping to win the Cup with the worst blue line in the sack era

The Toronto Maple Leafs hope to repeat the glory of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2016-17.

The 2017 Penguins won the Stanley Cup, and Kris Letang was injured and their best defenseman (now) was former (but future) Toronto Maple Leafs guard Ron Hainsey.

This is – as far as I can tell (and it's a long shot) – the worst blue line in the Cap era that won a Stanley Cup.

This year's Leafs blue line may be bad, so they'll be hoping to recreate the Penguins' magic. (The Leafs have Matt Murray on their roster and will likely start a rookie over him in the playoffs, so there's that…).

The Leafs' best defenseman is Morgan Rielly, who has the 3rd highest career scoring average with 65 points extrapolated over 82 games. Unfortunately, for the first time since 2018, Rielly was under 50% xGoals. As far as number one quarterbacks go, he's not in the league that other teams offer.

The Leafs' playoff opponents will most likely be Adam Fox, Jacob Slavin, Charlie McAvoy, Victor Hedman and Aaron Ekblad (or Monteur or Forsling). Those guys are 10 and Rielly is 4. It's not very close for the Leafs and it's only going to get worse.

The Leafs will disrupt Rielly's ability to be effective and throw him away. That strategy hasn't changed this year, as they usually pair him with Ilya Lyubushkin, who is the number seven at best.

After Rielly, next up on the Leafs depth chart is Jake McCabe (solid, but probably not as good as you'd want as the second-best defenseman. Certainly not Lindholm or Forling or Burns). But then things get difficult.

The Leafs list Liljegren third on the depth chart, but he has been injured and scratched in each of the last two playoff games. Regardless of how he plays when he returns, they should use him because their ability to move the puck out of the backfield is among the worst in the NHL and he is their second best player.

The Leafs have two retired vets in Brodie and Giordano, each a healthy scratch at different times.

After that, the Leafs have a 3-point defense that really gets around most of the night with their legs. Benoit is the best of the bunch, but none of them will get a spot in New York, Carolina, Tampa, Florida or Boston.

Last but not least is Conor Timmins, who puts up great stats and gives the Leafs a strong puck-moving option that they don't seem to want, even though they really need it.

All in all, this is a blue line without a true star player and only two, maybe three players above replacement level depending on what Liljegren gives you.

There is no upside from the blue line, and most of all, no ability to move the puck. This is the worst blue line of any playoff team, and if they win, it will be the worst since the Penguins pulled it off in 2017 with Ron Hainsey, Brian Dumoulin, Ollie Maatta, Justin Schultz, Ian Cole and Trevor. Daily.

The odds of that happening aren't great, but the fun of the NHL playoffs is that it could still happen.