Are the Leafs Better?
With John Chayka and Mats Sundin taking over the day to day leadership of the Toronto Maple Leafs, they were and are faced with a substantial challenge that most so called “experts” are not supportive of. They are taking the core of the team that failed miserably last season and building around it, in order to make the playoffs in 2026/2027 and challenge for the Stanley Cup.
That has been made clear by the numerous additions/deletions to the roster for next season. By all appearances this roster will be the 2026/2027 version of the Toronto Maple Leafs to begin next season. The only other significant change could be the trade of Morgan Reilly and addition of a younger/cheaper puck moving defenceman.
Building a Faster, High-Tempo Team
In listening to Chayka’s press conferences, one can surmise that his game plan is to return to Contender status next season, through making the team faster and playing a coaching system that fosters high tempo play through improved puck advancement from the defence and an attacking off the rush style of play. This system is in direct contrast to Craig Berube’s antiquated system of circle the wagons and block shots in the defensive zone along with dump and chase in the offensive zone.
That system was not aligned to 90% of last season’s roster and resulted in what appeared to be an aging slow team. True, they currently had/have one of the older teams in the NHL, however Berube’s system only magnified this. The large majority of last season’s games were played largely in the Leafs end of the ice, supported by the fact that they were outshot badly in many games.
Retaining and Adding Draft Picks
Chayka’s other mandate is, while returning to Contender status, also making the team younger over the next few years through retaining their draft picks and adding more as they move forward. We could see this on full display over Draft and Free Agency week as Chayka drafted 10 players, adding three 3rd round picks, one 4th and one 5th round pick, while giving up a 3rd, 4th and 5th. He netted out two additional picks while strengthening the team considerably.
Goaltending: A Real Upgrade
How did Chayka strengthen the Leafs within roughly a week’s time? He got lucky to begin with…can you say Gavin McKenna! However, this was only the beginning.
Starting with goaltending, the Leafs new tandem of 3 goalies, which most teams now need to get through an 84 game schedule, is Bobrovsky, Stolarz and AA (Arty) who won MVP for the Calder Cup winning Toronto Marlies. Provided game allocation is deployed effectively, roughly say Bob 45, Stolarz 29 and AA 10, this tandem is a marked upgrade to Stolarz, Woll and Hildeby. Trading Hildeby may come back to bite them one day, however the emergence of AA softens the blow and the Leafs were not going to carry 3 goalies on their roster for the entire next season, so the trade for Nick Paul made sense.
A Younger, More Mobile Blue Line
The defence needed to become more mobile and younger, which is still a work in progress. Auston Matthews and William Nylander were asked by management at season’s end what recommendations they had for improvement this season and both reiterated the need for 2 more puck moving defencemen.
Enter Darren Raddysh, a great addition to their power play, and Emil Andrae. Andrae is the start of transitioning the Leaf defence to a younger, puck moving D-core with Ben Danford, Alexander Bilecki, and possibly William Villaneuve on the horizon. Raddysh, Andrae, Reilly and to some degree Oliver Ekman-Larsson now provide the Leafs with 4 puck moving defencemen, which is an upgrade from last season’s blue line.
A Deeper, Heavier Forward Group
Clearly the addition of Paul, Roslovic, Sissons, Blueger and Brandon Duhaime has provided the Leafs with more clearly defined forward allocation. Your top six include Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, Knies (glad he wasn’t traded), Roslovic, Cowan and McKenna. That’s a pretty solid top 6/7. A considerable factor in how strong the Leafs offensive output is next season may lie with McKenna as well as Cowan, and the level of offence they produce could go a long way in determining their success.
The bottom 6/7 are bigger, stronger and play a heavier, faster game than their predecessors. Robertson, Maccelli and Jarnkrok aren’t built for the bottom six; however, they are not good enough on a contending team to play top six and, accordingly, had to go. Of note, it will be interesting to see if Blueger and Dakota Joshua are put back together to reignite their Vancouver success of a few years ago. Overall, the forward group is considerably stronger than last season.
Coaching: The Great Unknown
Finally, coaching. This is the great unknown as we really don’t have a clear idea of the style or system the Hiller coached Leafs will play, other than Chayka indicating that he wanted a faster, puck moving, up tempo team in 2026/2027. A big beneficiary of this may well be the much maligned Morgan Reilly of the past 1-2 years, and the Leafs may be glad they didn’t trade him, if that turns out to be the case.
This is the style the Leafs and most other teams need to play to be effective and successful. If the Leafs play a system similar to this, in my opinion they will be successful next season as they now have the well balanced team to do it. I believe Chayka’s plan is solid and he is on the right track!
