Opinion | The Leafs shouldn’t make a single trade. They have to find out what they’re made of

You know, the definition of insanity and all that. If something hasn’t worked time and time again, it only makes sense to try something different, right?

For decades, winters in Toronto have usually included an anticipatory period for fans and observers of the Maple Leafs during which speculation has run wild about player moves the team could or should make prior to the annual NHL trade deadline.

On some of those occasions, the Leafs were out of it and dumping players. More interesting, naturally, were the years when the club was acquiring a player or two, or three, thereby augmenting the roster in such a way that the chances of playoff success would be enhanced.

Some years it was about making the eighth and final playoff spot and then maybe a little noise in the post-season. A couple of times — hello, Owen Nolan — it was about an acquisition that might help the team actually make a run at the Stanley Cup.

Sometimes the deals were solid. Sometimes they were foolish. All we can state for certain is that none delivered the Cup, or a berth in the final. Since 2004, none even delivered a round of playoff success.

Kyle Dubas, as most Leafs general managers in similar situations have tried before him, went this route again last year, adding Nick Foligno from Columbus for a first round-pick and a fourth-rounder as the Leafs finished first in the now-defunct North Division. Foligno contributed very little, and the Leafs went out in the first round again.

So perhaps this year it’s time to do something different. To ignore all the voices calling for this player or that player to be acquired via trade.

In other words, this is the year to do nothing.

Most people would agree the Leafs have the basic talent and depth to win at least one round in the post-season. They do have the fifth-best winning percentage in the league, after all. It’s not about the talent on the roster; it’s about how that talent plays.

So let the talent play.

Part of the story with the Leafs for many years has been an annual search for that addition who will supply the missing ingredient or ingredients. Last year with Foligno, it was a supposed to be grit, size and toughness. With Nolan back in 2003, it was about adding a sniper, another scorer to complement Mats Sundin and Alexander Mogilny.

But what if this year’s Leafs relied on the players they have, many of whom have been groomed and developed by the organization for years, to get the job done?

This struck me Wednesday night when the Leafs were leading 3-1 against Anaheim. The home team was finishing off a power play and all the stars were on the ice together: Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, Morgan Rielly.

As the clock ticked down on the Anaheim penalty, all five were aggressively pushing for another goal and none were being responsible, at a point in the game where another goal wasn’t necessarily what Toronto needed most. Sure enough, Jakob Silfverberg jumped out of the penalty box, the Ducks had a three-on-one break and Silfverberg scored to make it 3-2.

The Leafs’ stars, it was clear, weren’t playing the game the right way. Or at least they were too focused on offence to have the proper focus on defence, the kind of balanced approach required in the playoffs. That balance wasn’t there when Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield were gifted a two-on-none break in overtime of Game 5 against Montreal last spring.

Well, if that’s how those top Leafs are going to play, it won’t matter what additions Dubas is able to make by the March 21 deadline. There’s no chance if the stars won’t do all the dirty jobs necessary to win, if they’re just going to play on the wrong side of the puck when it suits them.

Instead of bringing in others, doesn’t it make a lot more sense to make it clear to those players already on the roster that the onus is on them, and entrust them with that responsibility?

Every time you go elsewhere to add an element, you’re essentially telling those players they don’t have to do certain tasks that they may not want to do. You’re shifting the responsibility away from them.

Management believed it had to add Foligno because Matthews et al didn’t have the necessary compete level to advance past the first round, and that turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If the Leafs’ core had played to their talent levels in the playoffs last year, Toronto would have beaten Montreal. But Tavares got hurt, while Matthews and Marner underachieved. If that happens again, you can expect the result to be the same.

If this current group is healthy and doesn’t underachieve, it is entirely capable of beating anybody in the Eastern Conference, including Florida and Tampa Bay. So after years and years of thinking that adding players was the way to get further in the playoffs, and then learning year after year that wasn’t the answer, now is the time to change and let this team show what it can do the way it is.

If it works, you’ve shown what this roster can do when more is demanded.

If it doesn’t, you’ve learned pretty much all you need to know about your core group, and you haven’t sacrificed more draft picks or prospects for the information, giving you more tools to adjust the roster.

Might Dubas stand pat? It seems unlikely. GMs always prefer action to inaction. It’s easier to explain and defend.

But maybe that’s exactly what he should do. Put the onus on this roster, on these players.

It’s about time.

Damien Cox is a former Star sports reporter who is a current freelance contributing columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @DamoSpin