The Toronto Maple Leafs suffered one other disappointing postseason exit in 2025. They faced the Florida Panthers within the second round and had a 2-0 series lead early on. The truth is, they’d a probability to go up 3-0 against Florida. However the defending champions found their stride, defeating Toronto in six games. And in NHL Free Agency, Mitch Marner ushered in a major shift with the Maple Leafs.
Marner left Toronto after spending the primary nine seasons of his profession along with his hometown team. He joined the Vegas Golden Knights on a sign-and-trade agreement, which landed Toronto center Nicolas Roy. The previous Maple Leafs star went on to sign an eight-year contract with the Golden Knights after the move became official.
2025-26 will mark the primary season since 2018-19 where Toronto doesn’t have its “Core 4” — Marner, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, and William Nylander. It is a move many argue is overdue. Many believed the team needed a shakeup at the highest of the lineup just a few years ago.
How ever you’re feeling about that, that is the fact for the Maple Leafs. They must move forward without certainly one of their best players. They made just a few moves within the offseason. In saying this, there may be a broader area of need they may have address this summer. And it could have an effect on how the 2025-26 season pans out.
A more direct Mitch Marner alternative would have benefited Maple Leafs
It was at all times going to be difficult to interchange Marner. He scored 102 points in 2024-25, and he’s been certainly one of the more productive players within the NHL over the past several seasons. This can be a player who has the talent to steer a team on a deep playoff run. It just never worked out in Toronto.
On one hand, some could view his departure as an upgrade in and of itself. Again, Marner shouldn’t be a nasty player. Quite the contrary, he’s very easily an elite offensive producer. Moreover, he’s certainly one of the higher defensive forwards within the NHL. This can be a player any team would move heaven and earth to amass in the event that they had the prospect.
For whatever reason, though, he couldn’t lead this team to the Cup. The combination with him, Matthews, Tavares, and Nylander didn’t produce the needed results. Espeically within the postseason after they ran up against legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
All this said, losing 100+ points in your lineup is important. The Vancouver Canucks are a slight example of this. Elias Pettersson scored 102 points in 2022-23. Since then, though, his offense has declined. And the Canucks have struggled to interchange the points lost by his decline.
The Maple Leafs have tried to do what Vancouver has done. They try to interchange his points in the mixture. This shouldn’t be a nasty strategy, and it’s definitely easier than swinging a trade for an elite player. This summer, the Maple Leafs added Roy, Matias Maccelli, and Dakota Joshua to the forward group.
Unfortunately, this group doesn’t appear capable of come near Marner’s production, even in the mixture. The Maple Leafs must have worked harder to seek out a more direct alternative. This does not must be an elite player. Nonetheless, convincing Nikolaj Ehlers to register Toronto, for instance, could have given this group a significantly better look.
The Maple Leafs are still a superb team. It could be a surprise to see them fall off significantly without Marner, in truth. Nevertheless it’s hard to argue that a more significant move this offseason wasn’t needed given the circumstances.