With another Toronto Maple Leafs season coming to an end, as a Leaf fan, you’re stuck with watching the playoffs without a horse in the race for the first time in the Auston Matthews era. This seems absurd to think about when you consider the fact that the Leafs have gotten past the opening round of the playoffs just twice in the last 22 years.
If you’re like me, when your team doesn’t make the playoffs or gets eliminated early, you tend to get jealous of the teams that go on deep runs. If you’re not like that, and you’re not the type of fan who holds grudges, there are a few former Leafs you can look out for in the 2026 playoffs. Whether you decide to root for or against them is up to you.
Mitch Marner—Vegas Golden Knights
The first one is obvious: Mitch Marner. Marner was traded from Toronto to the Vegas Golden Knights last summer in a franchise-altering move for the Leafs. This move left a sour taste in the mouths of many Leaf fans, causing most of Leafs nation to hold a grudge against Marner because the rumour was that even if he didn’t get traded, he was going to leave in free agency regardless.
Marner played with the Leafs from 2016–2025, and during that time, he built himself a reputation in Leaf Land of not being a playoff performer, despite being one of the more dominant players on the roster during the regular season. His per-game point total with the Leafs was 1.12, which is elite! However, his playoff points per game total during his time with Toronto was 0.9, which was disappointing considering how good he was production-wise in the regular season year after year.
Let’s compare that to some other players just to put it into perspective. Jack Eichel, his teammate in Vegas, who’s won a Cup, has a regular-season PPG of 1.01; Marner has him beat. However, in the playoffs, Eichel’s PPG is 1.07. Another guy who’s won a Cup also in the same draft class is Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen’s regular-season PPG is 1.09. Again, Marner has him beat; however, Rantanen’s PPG in the playoffs is 1.24.
This season in Vegas, he had 80 points in 81 games. That’s a career low for Marner in a full 82-game season. His career low is 67 points, set in the shortened 2019–20 and 2021 seasons. This postseason will be interesting for Marner to see if his playoff performances were a scenery problem or if the lights of the playoffs are too bright for him.
Nazem Kadri—Colorado Avalanche
The second is Nazem Kadri. Kadri played with Toronto from 2009 to 2019. He’s remembered as being a bit of a pest for the Leafs. In all honesty, he’s the kind of player the Leafs could’ve used the last few years playing Florida in the playoffs.
After being traded to Colorado in the 2019 offseason, Kadri spent the next three seasons with the Avalanche, winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. After a brief two-season stint in Calgary, he was traded back to the Avalanche on the trade deadline this season.
Kadri was remembered as a Leaf for receiving suspensions in back-to-back playoff years in 2018 and 2019. Ironically, GM Kyle Dubas traded him partly because of his fiery playing style in the playoffs. Entering the playoffs, a lot of people would say Colorado is the favourite to win the Cup, and if they win, Kadri will be a big part of that run.
Fraser Minten—Boston Bruins
Fraser Minten was the Leafs second-round pick in 2022 and was traded from Toronto to Boston last season. Minten had been up and down in the AHL until this season. The 2025–26 season was his first full season in the NHL.
This season, Minten had 17 goals and 35 points in 82 games for the Bruins. He is part of the infamous Brandon Carlo trade, which makes the 2026 draft lottery extra important for the Leafs as they sent a conditional first-round pick with Minten to Boston. That is the top five protected, so if the Leafs don’t land within the top five in this year’s draft, Boston gets their pick.
During locker clean out day earlier this week, Leafs management took some heat from the fans and the media, and the Minten trade a topic of discussion. More so due to the Leafs poor performance this season, and the fact that their biggest rival during the “Auston Matthews era” may receive their first-round pick.
So, the Fraser Minten trade could give Leafs fans nightmares for years to come in multiple ways. Obviously, hindsight is 20/20, but I think I’d rather have Fraser Minten on my team than two years of a mediocre, somewhat injury-prone Brandon Carlo, who has been just okay during his time in Toronto.
Frederik Andersen—Carolina Hurricanes
Frederik Andersen played with the Leafs from 2016 to 2020. For five seasons, Frederik Andersen patrolled the crease for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Though he had some ups and downs with the team, he was well-liked by fans and in the room for the most part. But, as most know, Andersen didn’t always don the blue and white of the Maple Leafs. He was originally traded from the Anaheim Ducks in 2016, fresh off backstopping the Ducks to within one game of the Stanley Cup Final in 2015.
As for what the Maple Leafs got in Andersen, they received five strong years of goaltending from the now two-time Jennings winner, but couldn’t get it done come playoff time. As a regular-season goaltender over his five seasons with the Maple Leafs, Andersen accumulated a record of 149–74–36 in 268 games. He finished with a 2.79 GAA and a respectable .914 save percentage over that span, adding 13 shutouts.
However, he never finished with a high-danger scoring-chance save percentage over .800 with the Maple Leafs during the regular season, which raised questions about his playoff performance and ability to steal a game for the team. Stop me if you’ve heard that before.
After the 2020 season, the Leafs opted to hang on to Jack Campbell and lost Andersen to the Carolina Hurricanes in free agency, where Andersen has been the starter for their Stanley Cup-contending team for the last half-decade.
So, even though the boys in blue didn’t make it this season, you can still watch some old friends on their separate quests for the Stanley Cup.
