Last week, Hardev took a look at the Lightning and asked where the Leafs could realistically improve to get to their level. Hardev is intimately acquainted with the Tampa team, so his analysis came from years of watching them play a lot of games. I wanted to look at how the Leafs measure up to the Hurricanes, a team they resemble in many ways, but I’m not claiming that level of knowledge about the team.
How are the Leafs different from the Hurricanes?
Money and cap space is the obvious difference. While the Lightning played LTIR games just like the Leafs did and spent a lot of money, the Hurricanes, even under their new owner are a team with a different sort of budget.