Last Word On Hockey’s Puck Drop Previews are winding down as the 2025-26 season inches ever closer! Today’s Saturday edition takes place in none other than the Mecca of hockey, for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Along the frozen shores of Lake Ontario, lives a team full of history and a rich tradition of Championships over the years. 13 Stanley Cup victories to be exact, the second most in the upper pantheon of NHL history. Will the 2025-26 team be the one to bring an end to the string?
The 2025-26 Puck Drop Preview
One thing is for sure, and that is that it has been building for some time. With the likes of Nazem Kadri, Morgan Rielly, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and Easton Cowan, they are all a product of Toronto being a destination players love to play for, the fact that the ownership will pay for it, and they can even find the best NHL prospects, and that it has undoubtedly been this way for a sustained period of time. You simply cannot deny this era of dominance, combined with unlucky playoff results, for the Leafs franchise.
The Atlantic Division is shaping up to be an excellent rivalry between the Leafs and the Ottawa Senators and the Montreal Canadiens. There’s a lot of playoff games contained in the respective teams’ collective histories. However, this is 2025-26, and the two Florida-state teams, the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, have something to say about that distinction. It will be a good challenge, to be sure. In the last three seasons, the Leafs have lost to the Panthers and the Boston Bruins in the playoffs and handed the Sens and Lightning playoff series losses. Technically, with the Bruins out of the way, it is only Florida standing in their way. That is of course, if they can overcome the loss of 100-point scorer, Mitch Marner.
We can try to imagine some similar examples. Few teams have improved after moving on from royalty, maybe we can consider the Lightning with Steven Stamkos or the 2001 Seattle Mariners, after having passed on Alex Rodriguez.
What we are getting at is to make no mistake, the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs will see a lot of Toronto Maple Leaf games.
2024-25 Season Review
Well, let’s start with a review of the 2024-25 season. The Florida Panthers remained a team that could elevate its game unlike no other. Moreover, their lineup is currently very depleted without Matthew Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov in the lineup. As a matter of fact, that was the Leafs offseason approach, find a lineup that could finally beat the Panthers in a seven-game series. They may have it, too.
The Leafs were again close in the playoffs. They powered by the Sens in six games. Then, they had an impressive lead in their second-round playoff series with the Panthers. Even in the Game 3 overtime loss, they actually held a 3-1 lead in that game, before giving up three-in-a-row in the second period of play. In the end, being without Stolarz hurt their bottom line.
If we continue on about what happened last year, one big trade that is still paying dividends for the Leafs is the Brandon Carlo for Fraser Minten deal at last year’s trade deadline. We will go into more detail into that later. But next, let’s roll ahead to the offseason.
NHL Rumours and the Toronto Maple Leafs Final Forward Roster Spots
The 2025 Offseason
For the Leafs, the offseason hit quickly, as it usually does in the big city lights. The idea with the upcoming season is following the trade of Mitch Marner, can they somehow relive the hype? Dakota Joshua, Nicolas Roy, and Matias Maccelli are all excellent injections to your lineup. For example, they would be able to score well in their respective above-replacement metrics. Especially if they can replicate their better performances from recent times. Joshua scored a career-high 18 goals in 2023-24, and isn’t afraid to throw his weight around with 760 career hits in 241 games. In addition, Roy has been able to establish himself as a consistent depth player on a winner with the Vegas Golden Knights. He plays a career average of a shade under 15-minutes-a-game and his career high is a points-per-60-minutes of 2.3. If he puts it all together, the Leafs will have a very good bottom six.
Maccelli, let’s be honest, he could be the wild card. If he can, not match Marner’s output, but his impact, distributing to Matthews, it could be a huge difference maker.
So, with that, just what will become in the season that lays ahead?
Lineup Predictions Starting With the Top-Six Forward Lines
Knies – Matthews – Maccelli
McMann – Tavares – Nylander
Domi – Roy – Robertson
Joshua – Laughton – Lorentz
Extras:
Pezzetta – Kampf – Jarnkrok
The current Leafs take pride in owning the distinction as a team with the players being better than their competition, that is if you think in terms of one-on-one matchups from the top-on-down. Ultimately it is a reward for having a strong run of high draft picks, as we have alluded.
People make talk about Auston Matthews having a down year. Nah. Auston Papi Matthews can score 60 goals on any one given season. You wouldn’t want to pay on the under of an over/under on him scoring 60. Furthermore, Matthews will have plenty of talent flanking him with the breakout player in Matthew Knies, as well as the Maccelli trial.
But we are ultimately here to discuss player success and the potential that goes along with it. Matthews is after-all but a mere cog in the Leafs wheel. Mind you he probably is disproportionality advantageous to have out there for you. In any sense, the rest of the top-six forward group is very refined. Nylander, along with John Tavares and whoever plays left, will put up numbers. Right now it is Bobby McMann slated to go in the spot. It will be a very competitive slot, and if you’re not contributing offensively, new lines will quickly be explored.
Bottom Six
The Leafs bottom six are what management hopes is going to be a differentiator come playoff time. It is also pushed by the internal team drive to score and make yourself ready for the top six, if the opportunity should so present itself.
We discussed many of these bottom-six pieces already, as they kind of slid in to replace Marner’s value. It is important to keep in mind, to weather your expectations until the group can grow some natural chemistry. At the same time, now, the Leafs have a multitude of depth.
Guys like Scott Laughton and Steven Lorentz (on their fourth line) really help highlight how deep the roster is for the Leafs. Max Domi is a guy that can play up and down the lineup, and is an excellent distributor of the puck. Furthermore, despite being the topic of potential trade talks, Nicholas Robertson is a great guy to have on board as a depth sniper. Finally, shaping up as the 13th-man, is Michael Pezzetta. He plays hard and has a bit of finishing skills. Thus, he should be able to provide excellent accountability for the bottom of the lineup.
Defence and Establishing the Line in the Sand of the Top-Four and the Bottom Pair
Can Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo have an All-Star calibre season the team knows is possible? Of Leaf pairings that skated over 199 minutes together last year, they led the team with an expected goal percentage of 58.5%. They’re the Leafs second pairing. But, who’s the top matchup you ask? Thought you’d never ask.
A pairing of Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev wants to show everyone why they are the top pairing on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their intensity and ability to shut down defenders is more than evidence of this fact. It just continues to show why Toronto is a force to be reckoned with in the East, in 2026.
Don’t forget, Oliver Ekman-Larsson may have moved around in his career, but he earned nearly $13 million in the 2023-24 season. If he’s on your third pairing, you are already ahead of the curve. They have depth now too, but Simon Benoit is the front-runner for the top-six defencemen.
With Henry Thrun, Philippe Myers, and Ben Danford ready to make their mark, the Leafs will be pushing hard on defence, as they did on forward.
Goalies
The Leafs goaltending situation is a complicated one. However, Anthony Stolarz is the reigning save percentage statistic leader from the 2024-25 campaign at a .926 SV%. Very impressive. The Leaf fanbase do believe they have a clearcut number one netminder. The only knock against him at this point, is his career-high 34 regular season NHL games from 2024-25 at 31 years old.
Joseph Woll is the 1-b to Stolarz’s 1-a, and that’s why the goaltending situation is considered to be quite strong. However, fast forward a day after it was announced that Woll be away from the team on a leave of absence for an indeterminate length of time, and there was some additional news.
It was announced that 37-year-old James Reimer would be given a professional tryout with the club. Reimer played five seasons with Toronto, but left in the midst of the 2015-16 to join the San Jose Sharks. Even though Woll is not expected to be out for an extended period, having him challenge shooters with an NHL goaltending presence, seems like a positive idea.
In any sense, having the tandem of Stolarz and Woll, seems to be a position of strength. They come in rated very well in comparison to their fellow Atlantic Division foes. That is impressive with a group of competitors featuring multiple Vezina Trophy winners. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky, and Linus Ullmark all had their time on top in the past. Now, it seems the Leaf tendies are ready to put on their own star performances.
Players to Watch
One of the X-Factors for the Leafs in the 2025-26 season will be Easton Cowan. Now, it’s in no way a lock he makes the squad out of camp. Realistically, there is a lot of salary to move around before the end of camp. David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok remain weird scenarios to be so good, so low in the depth charts. They have been the mention of trade rumours, but at some point, the Leafs will need them when injuries pop up. So, whether that need is fulfilled by a replacement player via trade, or they step up, that is yet to be seen. These are serviceable NHLers and teams will be ready to play ball. Moving around some pieces, could jump Cowan up in the team’s depth charts.
There’s another big potential game changer. If Dakota Joshua can repeat is better career performances, he will really help power the bottom of the order. He will help dictate whether the team is able to sustain their advantage over their opponents, one-through-four in terms of lines. Plus, his physicality makes him a guy that really steps up in the playoffs. Of course, a trait of a player you can never have enough of in the playoffs.
The Final Season Prediction
It’s hard to predict how many, but Leaf fans are hungry for a Eastern Conference Final matchup. The Leafs just need to remember to execute and play the brand of hockey that each individual is accustomed to playing. Versus playing like the players that somehow seem to come up short in the postseason. Right now, we have them winning the Atlantic Division, and getting past the best the Metropolitan Division has to offer in the postseason, and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final. Then, it is simply first to four games. It really depends who they face, the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers, are examples of teams that have those intangibles to win. Moreover, the Leafs can be resilient when it counts. Maybe even a reunion with Marner and the Golden Knights is in store. Leaf fans should prepare for a bunch of playoff wins in ’26. How many? We will just have to wait to learn.
Main Photo Credit: Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
