How deep should the cuts be? Marner is far from alone in his playoff shortcomings, but he will bear the brunt on his way out the door. What about Morgan Rielly? He was exposed for his lack of foot speed big time in these playoffs, plus that contract will only age poorly. Should John Tavares still be retained on the cheap? And what about Auston Matthews?

It’s an interesting thought exercise. The captain has 26 goals in 68 career postseason games; three of those games were two-goal games, so he has scored in 23 of 68 playoff contests as a Leaf. His scoring is nearly cut in half, from 0.64 goals per game in the regular season to 0.38 in the postseason. Here’s the thing: It’s not just the lack of postseason success for Matthews, but also his chronic injuries. If it truly is a recurring back injury for Matthews, as has been whispered, how many of those injuries actually get better over time? There’s a million reasons why they should keep him. He’s a straight up assassin when healthy, one of the most difficult players in the league to replace. But he hasn’t looked like a threat in a while. It’s admittedly very unlikely that Toronto would move on from Matthews – and his no-movement clause would limit their control – but how many questions or thought exercises should be totally off the table for this Toronto team?