Before the season even begins, the Toronto Maple Leafs receive an honor that changes everything

The Maple Leafs just got graded on their whole offseason, and Toronto came out No. 2 in the league.

Sergei Bobrovsky is the reason that ranking carries weight, headlining a Maple Leafs rebuild that touched almost every position on the roster.

Toronto handed the veteran goalie a deal carrying a $7,000,000 cap hit. That is a massive bet on a 37-year-old coming off a season where he posted a .876 save percentage across 52 appearances.

Handing a 37-year-old goalie $7 million off an .876 year is like buying a sports car with bald tires, risky before it even leaves the lot.

Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz will share the crease again, reuniting their old Florida tandem north of the border. Stolarz posted a .893 save percentage in 26 appearances last season.

Toronto needed a jolt after finishing 32-36-14, good for 78 points and a 28th overall ranking in the league last year.

Why Toronto's overhaul scored so high in the rankings

A -46 goal differential and a seven-game losing streak to close things out, capped by a 1-3 loss at Ottawa on April 15, tells you how ugly it got.

That is why a near-total roster teardown was enough to land Toronto at No. 2 in the league's offseason grades, trailing only one team.

Darren Raddysh is the other reason for that ranking, and his numbers speak for themselves.

The defenseman put up 70 points on 22 goals and 48 assists in 73 games last season before signing in Toronto.

That kind of blue line production does not happen often. Expecting him to repeat it every single year is asking a lot from any defenseman.

The bottom six got rebuilt too, with Jack Roslovic, Colton Sissons, Nick Paul, Brandon Duhaime and Teddy Blueger all walking in the door.

Roslovic scored 21 goals and posted 36 points in 69 games last season, giving new head coach Jim Hiller a depth scorer who can finish plays.

Young defenseman Emil Andrae also arrives, coming off a 13-point season with a plus-15 rating across 61 games with his old club.

Out the door went goalie Joseph Woll, forwards Matias Maccelli, Nick Robertson and Calle Jarnkrok, and defensemen Brandon Carlo, Simon Benoit and Henry Thrun.

A No. 2 offseason ranking sounds great in September. Whether it holds up depends entirely on what an .876 goalie looks like in October.