NHL: Toronto Maple Leafs, 2025/2026 review
Thirty points. That is what vanished between one season and the next in Toronto, the steepest year-over-year drop the franchise has ever recorded. A club tipped to win the Atlantic finished on 78 points and eighth in the division, watching the playoffs from home. Mitch Marner walked to Vegas and nobody filled the hole he left. The general manager was fired midstream. Every layer of the operation came apart at roughly the same time.
Key data
2025-2026 record: 32-36-14 (253 goals for, 299 against)
2025-2026 NHL standings: 8th in the Atlantic Division
2025-2026 top scorer: John Tavares (31)
2025-2026 top playmaker: William Nylander (49)
2025-2026 points leader: William Nylander (79)
Average roster age (2026-2027): 30.3
Available cap space (2026-2027): -$2.75M
Recent moves (off-season)
Arrivals:
- Emil Andrae (D)
- Darren Raddysh (D)
- Jack Roslovic (F)
- Sergei Bobrovsky (G)
- Colton Sissons (F)
- Teddy Blueger (F)
- Brandon Duhaime (F)
- Nick Paul (F)
Departures:
- Joseph Woll (G)
- Simon Benoit (D)
- Brandon Carlo (D)
- Matias Maccelli (F)
- Nicholas Robertson (F)
- Dennis Hildeby (G)
A summer that spared nobody
Toronto Maple Leafs, future contracts and draft picks
John Chayka runs the front office now. Jim Hiller runs the bench. Gavin McKenna, first overall in the 2026 draft, runs onto the ice in blue and white. After the worst collapse in club history, ownership did not tinker. It cleared the room.
The crease finally got serious attention too, with Sergei Bobrovsky and his two Stanley Cups signing on. Yet all of it orbits one unresolved name. Auston Matthews has two years left and has said nothing binding about what comes after, following a campaign wrecked by a bad knee.
The contract picture is not all grim. William Nylander and Matthew Knies are locked in through 2030-31 and beyond. The draft cupboard is thinner, though, with no first-rounder in 2028. Chayka cannot afford a slow burn. Everything about this summer was designed to show Matthews that Toronto can win again while he is still here.
Nine new faces, one identity still missing
Toronto opens the season looking almost unrecognisable. McKenna steps straight onto the top line next to Matthews. Bobrovsky inherits a goaltending job that has sunk more than one Leafs playoff run.
Nylander is still the engine. He led the club in points last year while everything around him fell apart, and Knies keeps supplying the ugly, valuable work in front of the net that this roster needs come April. Matthews is back from the knee injury that shortened his season. His health matters enormously. It is not the only thing that does.
Depth is no longer the problem it was. Whether this blend of teenagers, veterans and imports can agree on what kind of team it wants to be, and do it quickly, is a different question entirely, and one Toronto has failed to answer before by simply handing the puck to a star and hoping.
Player to watch: Gavin McKenna, 18 years old and no place to hide
The first pick of the last draft lands in Toronto carrying expectations that would flatten most teenagers, and nobody quite agrees on where he should start. One camp wants the Matthews treatment, sheltered minutes early, protected matchups, patience.
Another camp says put him beside Matthews on night one, or drop him onto a second unit with Tavares and Nylander. At 18, something in the 40 to 65 point range is a fair rookie ask, and most of it will come from his vision rather than his shot.
Wherever Hiller decides to play him, McKenna gets watched from the first shift. Toronto has never been a patient market for young players.
2026-2027 target: eighth place or bust
Projected Toronto Maple Leafs lines, 2026-2027
The new regime is not selling a bridge year. Nine new players walked in, the scoring is spread wider, the blue line is deeper, and the goaltending question that haunted this club for the better part of a decade finally has a credible answer.
None of that guarantees anything. Florida, Tampa Bay and Montreal all start ahead of Toronto in the Atlantic, which means the Leafs may not control their own fate even if they play well. A top-eight finish in the East is the realistic ask, built on a broader offence and whatever McKenna delivers, rather than on Matthews staying upright for 82 games.
Make the playoffs and the overhaul is vindicated. Miss again, after all this, and the conversation about Matthews’ last two years in Toronto stops being hypothetical.
My prediction
Toronto are back in the playoffs this year. Plenty has changed, and plenty of it looks good. Don't forget Matthews and Nylander both missed around 20 games apiece last season. They brought in McKenna and made some smart moves. There's still a bit of ground to make up before they can go even further, but I can see this team making noise this year.
Photo credit: wallpapersafari.com | dorothyspencer
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