' On bottom leaves, not sure what this white substance is '

Bird poop.

'Tree was planted to the root flare, seems OK to me'

Your tree is a grafted variety, I think that's the graft you're seeing at ground level.

Show us the root flare please.

You give us precious little information on how the tree is cared for.

What zone are you in and what type of winter did you have?

I see a stream or river in the back ground, could the tree be getting too much water? does it flood there? If you dig down a foot, near where the tree sits, does the hole fill with water?

Has it been very windy there? I have a sugar maple with broken leaf petioles all the time after a strong wind.

Your pictures are nice btw but it tells us nothing about what goes on there during the season.

Thanks @BillMN-z-2-3-4

I will follow up with a root flare picture next time I am there.

Zone is 6b. Winter was overall mild but there were two extreme cold events (one right before Xmas, it hit about 3 or 4 F, and the other it was about 7)

Water - I don't think it gets too much water. The area it's in does not get flooded (unless maybe it was 100 year flood event. But in the last year since planting it was has not been flooded there). It was watered consistently throughout the summer it was planted, and then left alone.

Wind - technically this is in a small valley area, so actually wind is usually pretty mild even on a windy day. I don't think wind is an issue here

Those branches with all the dead leaves, could be the beginning of verticillium wilt. You can't do much about that just wait and see.

This is from yesterday – so sad to see it like this :(

NJ had a ton of rain the last few weeks, didn't seem to affect this. Is it completely done for, or could it come back next season?

With few leaves to make food for the roots this season, I really wouldn't expect a spectacular comeback next season.

If you do replace it, you might want to look for something that's resistant to verticillium wilt JIC.