Coming off another first-round playoff loss, many Toronto Maple Leafs fans were again left disappointed, or in some cases simply numb.
Many fans complained about the goaltending and Ilya Samsonov‘s backbreakers; others point to the poorly constructed defence. Other fans are perennially disappointed that the Maple Leafs’ superstars cannot carry the team like other stars around the league.
Indeed, the main leadership of the team, or the “core four” (i.e., Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares) have been criticized for consistently poor playoff performances and not having built a winning culture in the locker room over the last eight seasons.
At the end of season media availability, General Manager Brad Treliving said that, “Everything must be on the table.” New CEO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Keith Pelley said, “There’s no complacency. We’re not here to sell jerseys. We’re here to win.” These are some pretty bold statements given the last eight playoffs and meant that Treliving had his work cut out for him this offseason. So let’s look at some of the key roster changes Treliving has completed since the press conference, and examine whether these changes satisfy these bold statements.
Addressing the defence corps
A not-so-secret is that the Maple Leafs are “top-heavy” in talent and salary. The core four will take up roughly $46.6M (or 53% of the salary cap) in the upcoming 2025–26 season. As a result of this top-heavy roster, there has been a carousel of bottom six forwards, bottom pair defenceman, and goalie tandems in and out of the lineup over the last near-decade because of what little salary cap remains to address needs elsewhere.
In addition, the Maple Leafs needed a solid number one right-handed defenceman. Treliving addressed this need this off-season by landing Chris Tanev, making him the best partner for Morgan Rielly in his entire career, and maybe the best defenceman on the Leafs . Furthermore, Treliving signed Oliver Ekman-Larsson in the hopes that he would continue to regain his offensive production, which is another sore spot for Toronto: a lack of offensive production from the back end.
Treliving may still sign Jani Hakanpää, however, due to injuries, the contract is still not official. Nevertheless, assuming he is cleared to play, his physical presence will be much welcomed with Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin leaving this off-season.
Comparing the back end on paper to last year, it is no contest that this is probably one of the better defence corps that the Maple Leafs have iced in over a decade.
Addressing the goaltending situation
Another defining characteristic of this Maple Leafs era is the numerous goaltenders. Other than Frederik Andersen, Toronto has lacked a defining starting goaltender, going through numerous personnel such as Jack Campbell, Petr Mrazek, Matt Murray, Samsonov, and Joseph Woll to name a few.
This off-season Treliving elected to not re-sign Samsonov and opted to sign Woll to a $3.66M AAV, three-year contract extension that kicks in starting in the 2025–26 season. While it can be argued that this is a bit rich for a goalie who has only played a total of 43 NHL games (including playoff games) and has a bit of an injury history, clearly Treliving is betting on Woll’s potential and looking to cash-in on some key performance years before a big payday, if it happens.
Treliving also signed Anthony Stolarz to play in tandem with Woll. While this goalie tandem has the potential to be great, nevertheless, it comes with risk.
Administrative changes
More offseason changes came in the form of a new coach and a new captain. On May 17, Craig Berube was hired to replace former head coach Sheldon Keefe. Berube won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues as the head coach in the 2018–19 season. He has more of a blue-collar mindset and is known to hold players accountable. One criticism of the former head coach, Sheldon Keefe, is that he did not hold his star players accountable for their lack of performance.
Then, on August 14, the Maple Leafs named Matthews the 26th captain in the franchise’s history, with Tavares passing on the torch. From a marketability perspective, this makes sense. Tavares is entering his final year with Toronto; although rumoured to be signing an extension. Matthews is the Maple Leafs’ best player, arguably the face of the franchise, and has notably won three Maurice Rocket Richard trophies and a Hart trophy.
While the changes to the defence corps, goaltending, coaching, and team leadership are encouraging, the Maple Leafs did not address the big elephant in the room: the core four remains unscathed yet again.
Self-inflicted wounds
At the end of the 2022–23 season, then GM Kyle Dubas hinted in his end-of-season presser that there would be substantial changes to the core four. The obvious targets at that time would have been Marner or Nylander. However, five weeks before July 1, 2023, President Brendan Shanahan decided not to renew Dubas’ contract and allegedly phoned the core four members saying they would not be traded. On May 31, 2023, Brad Treliving was hired as the new General Manager, leaving roughly five weeks before Mitch Marner’s no-movement clause kicked in.
With Treliving extending Matthews last off-season to an NHL high of $13.25M for four years, and more recently extending Nylander to $11.5M for eight years, both with no-movement clauses, we can assume these two players are Maple Leafs long-term.
This led to rampant, months-long speculation that Marner, after being largely a non-factor in the most recent Boston Bruins series, was going to waive his no-movement clause and be involved in a franchise-altering blockbuster move that would redefine the Maples Leafs roster and culture.
However, this did not happen and in actuality, the argument could be made that the Maple Leafs’ forward group is worse off this off-season.
Despite re-signing Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi‘s signing with the Chicago Blackhawks leaves a glaring hole on the first-line left wing, a line that was pretty decent against Boston.
On June 30, Nicholas Robertson, also a left winger, requested a trade. It has been recently reported that Robertson still intends to not sign with the Maple Leafs. With PuckPedia noting that Toronto has roughly $1.28M in cap space left (not including Hakanpää), barring a trade, the Maple Leafs will have to rely on top prospects such as Fraser Minten and Easton Cowan to fill the gaps, which is a tall order.
Perhaps more frustrating is that this is self-inflicting wounds. Rather than re-signing Nylander or letting Marner’s no-movement clause kick in, they could have been traded to address defence and goaltending longer term, and send a message to the team that the losing culture is unacceptable.
The definition of insanity is…
While Toronto has made improvements to the roster, the current era of the Maple Leafs is defined by the core four. Heading into the ninth season with them, staying intact or “running it back” is a bit of a fool’s errand. One playoff win in the last eight seasons with this group is not good enough. With the core four being paid $46.6M in the upcoming 2025–26 season, you would expect these players to produce when it counts and carry the team through a couple of deep playoff runs by now.
However, time and time again the core four has not come through. At this point, the Maple Leafs have been through two head coaches, several assistant coaches, and a carousel of bottom forwards, top nine forwards, defencemen, and “character players”. What has persisted during this time is the core leadership group, the core four, which remains intact despite Matthews being named captain.
It is not to say that the changes made this off-season will not improve the on-ice product. Whether Tanev and Ekman-Larsson stabilize the defence corps or Berube as head coach and Matthews as captain finally changes the culture all remains to be seen. But as with seasons past, it is hard to not see these changes this off-season as putting band-aid solutions over a glaring hole on a sinking ship.
