#toronto-maple-leafs

#toronto-maple-leafs

The Leafs' NHL rosters went 0-2-1 in preseason, while their "B" squads went 2-0-1. The Leafs aren't an incredibly old team by any means - they are the 12th oldest to start the season - but they are a veteran squad. And veterans really do not care about the preseason. In their last exhibition game as a full NHL lineup in Toronto against Montreal, all the penalties seemed to kill the game.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have finalized their 2025-26 roster as the season opener against the Montreal Canadiens draws near. A few last-minute twists from untimely injuries, tight salary cap constraints, and unexpected waiver-wire pickups forced some tough decisions and reshaped the final lineup in ways few predicted, especially among the forwards. Now that the dust has settled, let's break down the biggest winners and losers from a dramatic end to the preseason that left fans buzzing and a few players blindsided.

Primeau, who was once seen as the future of Montreal's crease, has spent his entire career so far with the Canadiens but has never been in a settled position. As recent as last season, the 26-year-old netminder played the majority of his year with the AHL's Laval Rocket, where he earned a .927 save percentage and 1.96 goals against average in 26 games. He did manage to appear in 11 games for the Canadiens, but had a very bad .836 save percentage in those games.

the Toronto Maple Leafs back during the summer of 2018, he had only one thing in mind. That was to fulfill his childhood dreams to play for his hometown and lead the Maple Leafs to a Stanley Cup title. Tavares has sure done all he could during the past seven seasons with Toronto, posting three 35+ goals and four 70+ points campaigns while being part of the now-defunct "core four" along with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander to lead the offensive attack.

As the new season approaches, the road to Atlantic supremacy, and perhaps the Stanley Cup, still runs through Sunrise. The Panthers have firmly established themselves as Toronto's biggest obstacle to a deep playoff run. While the Leafs made their own offseason adjustments, most notably losing All-Star winger Mitch Marner, it's the Panthers who continue to set the pace, retooling just enough to remain dangerous without compromising the core that brought them back-to-back titles.

The whole article is worth the read but to boil it down to the simple point projection, the most likely out come after thousands of season simulations is that the Maple Leafs will finish the year with 89 points. Within the prediction, that is tied with the Florida Panthers but because of some other potential factors, the Panthers are in that final playoff spot, and the Leafs are on the other side.

More than any other veteran player on the Toronto Maple Leafs, Scott Laughton needs this preseason to go well. After being a trade deadline acquisition and then failing to meet the high-end price that the Leafs paid for him, Laughton is ready to put that behind him. And he did exactly that in the first period Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens.

Rielly took his talk with Treliving seriously and spent the majority of the offseason inside the Leafs facility, looking to improve his game heading into the 2025-26 season. Rielly said he skated and worked out, while altering his diet and sleep routine. The goal was to step away from his normal offseason routine like in the past, as it obviously didn't yield positive results last year.

Step one right now is seeing what we have in camp. I know everybody's focused on that one spot, and certainly we are, but you don't know where chemistry is going to come from. You can put it on paper, but until you get on the ice and see who fits with who, you don't know....Sometimes it needs a little bit of different ingredients - whether it's a defensive presence, someone who can forecheck, create loose pucks, create space, .

The Toronto Maple Leafs hosted the Ottawa Senators for the second half of a home-and-home in the preseason Tuesday night and, well, it was an embarrassing 3-2 overtime loss to the divisional rivals. Not only did the Maple Leafs lose in their own building to a Senators team that was barely half-full of NHL talent, but they did while icing almost their entire squad.

Over the full season, the Leafs finished 29th in five-on-five shot attempt share and 23rd in expected goals. They defended well - by packing the house and clearing the net - and combined with their excellent goaltending tandem, it led to a second-place ranking in five-on-five save percentage. From January onwards, when they posted the second-best points percentage in the league, the Leafs were also buoyed by the third-ranked power play.

When you look back at the last few years in Leafs Land, every single season has started with a question mark. Whether it was the possibility of Sheldon Keefe, Kyle Dubas or Brendan Shanhan's contract's expiring, contract talks with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander or the changing of the captain from Tavares to Matthews last year, there has always been a huge question-mark leading into the season.

Henry Thrun falls under the category of newly acquired players, and also will be fighting for a spot on a blueline that already has many bodies. The Leafs traded for the 24 year-old defender in exchange for forward Ryan Reaves. Thrun is in the final year of his contract, and will be expiring as a restricted free agent at the end of the year.

Asked by @jonassiegel if adding a top-six forward is still a target, Leafs GM Treliving says, "Yeah." "It's not from a lack of trying. You're always looking to try to improve your team. I think league-wide, it was a slower summer. . . We would like to add (a top-6 F)." - David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) September 17, 2025