Why are the Toronto Maple Leafs so much better this season?Craig Custance: Auston Matthews. Let's start there. If the Maple Leafs hadn't won the draft lottery and instead added another good young prospect to their stable, they'd be just another good young team. In adding the franchise center, their Jonathan Toews, they've now boosted the timeline of their rebuild considerably. His goal Wednesday night against the Detroit Red Wings is a great example of his impact. He turned in a dominant shift, with the puck on his stick for a majority of it, and then finished it with a goal. This kid was No. 1 overall in the biggest hockey market and might somehow be better than advertised. Factor in the pieces they already had in place, and one of the best coaches in the game in Mike Babcock, and the Leafs are now a legitimate playoff threat.  Scott Burnside: Well, let's start with special teams, an annual benchmark for those trying to discern the pretenders from the contenders. A year ago, the Leafs' power play was 29th, which makes sense since they were a bottom-of-the-barrel team. They were better on the penalty kill, at 13th. This season? The Leafs are dominant on both sides of the puck, ranking fourth on the PK -- that's a jump of 25 places in a 30-team league -- and have climbed into second place in power-play efficiency. That's how playoff teams act. We were all anointing John Tortorella as the Jack Adams winner as coach of the year before the new year, but when you look at the dramatic turnaround by the Leafs under Babcock, perhaps we've been a bit hasty in handing out the early hardware. Corey Pronman: 1. A significant improvement in goaltending: Their team save percentage is up 7 points this season thanks to the great play of Frederik Andersen. 2. One of the greatest team rookie crops in the modern era: Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Connor Brown, Zach Hyman, Nikita Zaitsev. 3. Nazem Kadri is no longer shooting under 7 percent, and has passed his goal total from last season (20 vs. 17), where I thought he played quite well but was snakebitten. They're not at a Pittsburgh Penguins/Washington Capitals level, but to me the Leafs are a top-5 or -6 team in the East. Pierre LeBrun: This team goes three-deep in its scoring lines and produces offensive chances on nearly every shift. Franchise rookie Matthews centers the underrated pair of Hyman and Brown; Kadri, having a career year, is between Leo Komarov and Nylander; and veterans James van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak have skated all season with super rookie Marner. It's produced a relentless 1-2-3 attack that has produced matchup nightmares for the opposition. Pick your poison. Rob Vollman: The Maple Leafs have actually been progressing steadily for the past couple of seasons, and finally hit a certain threshold where continued improvement starts to show up in the standings. The turning point was after the collapse in 2013-14, at which point they started phasing out players on bad contracts (and stopped signing new ones), adopted hockey analytics to find value-priced replacements and invested heavily in an experienced coaching staff to guide them. The improvement was immediate, but they started from such a big hole that it took a couple of seasons for the changes to become noticeable in the standings. Joe McDonald: It has nothing to do with stats. The entire organization has been rebuilt sooner than expected and the two best stats are the eyes. The right hockey minds are in place with president Brendan Shanahan, general manager Lou Lamoriello (who is reinvigorated and wants another Stanley Cup) and coach Babcock. The Leafs have a strong combination of youth and veterans, and the chemistry is evident. Upper management has given the young players an opportunity, and Babcock has put them in a position to be successful within a structure that works for this team. Rookies Matthews and Marner are special players. The Leafs are playoff-bound.
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