Some Leafs players feel the "core four" get too much attention: report

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ locker room doesn’t exactly appear to be the smoothest workplace in the world these days.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman suggested on a recent podcast episode that perhaps some of the players on the team aren’t quite thrilled about the attention drawn to the media-dubbed “core four.”

Toronto’s four highest-paid forwards — Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares — have combined for 51% of the Leafs’ regular season goals over the last five seasons.

Making a combined $40.6 million per season, it’s sensible a vast majority of the expectations and attention would centre around the group. But Friedman noted that other Leafs players might not be too happy about the way the team’s hierarchy has played out over the last few seasons.

“What someone indicated to me was, the feeling was that [the Leafs] haven’t done a good enough job as a group, like everybody, creating an identity for other players on the roster,” Friedman stated on today’s episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast. “I want to stress I don’t think this is about jealousy. I don’t believe it’s about jealousy… but what I think it is about is if you’re going to win, you’ve gotta win with 23 [players]. Not with four plus 19.”

Nylander, Marner, and Matthews joined the Leafs via three consecutive first-round draft picks from 2014-2016, while Tavares joined the group as a free agent in the summer of 2018. The team won their first playoff series since 2004 earlier this year with a six-game victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning, before falling to the Florida Panthers in five games in the second round.

While the four forwards scored 13 goals in six games against Tampa Bay, they mustered up just three goals between them against Florida — two from Nylander and one from Marner.

“I believe some of the depth players may have talked about this; is they feel it gets in the way of forming a team identity,” Friedman continued. “Some of that you’re not going to get away from because, in the media, we’re going to talk about the core four, right? So you can’t escape it. But can you do a better job of creating an identity around some of the other players in the roster?”

The full podcast is available to listen to below.

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