"The five who cause the problem": NHL fans react to Toronto Maple Leafs' changes over the years leaving a handful of remaining players

The Toronto Maple Leafs came off a frustrating postseason run that was cut short in the first round by the Boston Bruins. Fans had previously called out the inability of certain star players to step up in the clutch moments as reasons behind their constant playoff disappointments.

Every off-season there is some shakeup in the team’s lineup with new additions and exits in different positions. However, the Leafs’ core four/five of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Morgan Rielly have remained constant in the team’s lineup.

Leafslatest posted a tweet pointing out the differences in the Leafs' roster from three years ago which has seen all players change bar the core five. Fans were quick to react to the tweet and let their opinions known in the comments.

Some of them believed that the remaining five players were the ones holding the team behind:

“Only 5 remain? Yeah, the five who cause the problem.”

“It's literally because they spend most of their money on 5 players. Then surround them with spare parts. This is the least surprising thing ever,” wrote one user.

“Sucked then. Suck now. Some things never change,” quipped one fan.

Some fans mentioned the team’s reluctance to move away from similar tactics and the core players have been responsible for their lack of results. They believed that the Maple Leafs needed to shake things up for real this time.

“Four high end forwards, average defence, subpar goaltending. The recipe hasn’t changed and neither have the results in the playoffs. The definition of insanity is repeating the same process while expecting different results 🙃.”

“And that's the problem. No other sports team would fly with the same 4-5 players for almost a decade with such little success to show for it,” wrote one fan.

“Only 5 players remain. The core 5. The only constant through 7 years of playoff failure. Everything around them has been changed - including the coach and general manager. As long as they remain - nothing has really changed 😕,” commented another user.

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Toronto Maple Leafs not ready to trade away Mitch Marner per insider

Mitch Marner will enter the final year of his six-year contract with the Maple Leafs and there has been no extension offer yet. Meanwhile, trade rumors have been swirling around the player since the very beginning of the offseason.

However, according to TSN’s Frankie Corrado, since Marner hasn’t been traded already, the chances that he will be this offseason are very slim. Although the player will possibly remain in Toronto, his contract extension largely depends on how he performs in the 2024-25 playoffs under new HC Craig Berube.

“The fact that Marner is still in Toronto leads me to believe that they're going to give this thing another chance with Craig Berube behind the bench to see what he can do with this core group that includes Mitch Marner,” Corrado said.

He also mentioned that if Marner's contract expires and he leaves, it would be the simplest way to break up the core four players of the Toronto Maple Leafs without having to trade anyone. The plan is to see if the team performs better under the new head coach, Craig Berube, for another year.

While Marner and his teammates have been excellent during the regular season, their struggle has been in the playoffs. If the team succeeds in the playoffs under Berube, the Maple Leafs could offer Marner a substantial contract to keep him with the team for the long term.