#toronto-maple-leafs

#toronto-maple-leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs' season is still on the brink of completely falling apart. They have lacked a scoring touch that most are used to seeing from a team with high-end scorers. While GM Brad Treliving could roll the dice on making a move before or by the trade deadline to try and help salvage what's been a disappointing season so far, he could look to help improve the team, within the system, for next year.

Like I said, we talked this morning and everybody needs to step up, for sure. We might have a couple of different younger guys in there tonight, but the team game is what it's all about for us. When you have injuries like this, we don't know if Matthews is playing tonight, we need a really strong team game tonight. The team game can get you through it.

Pavel Zacha is exactly the kind of middle-six forward the Leafs should be calling ahead of the trade deadline this March. At 28 years old, he brings a combination of size, versatility, and offensive ability that would help a Leafs lineup desperately in need of secondary scoring and depth centre options. Zacha is under contract with the Bruins through 2027-28 with a $4.75 million average annual value, making him a mid-term asset for a team looking to compete now and in the near future.

Rifai is working his way back from wrist surgery that has kept him sidelined for the entire season to date, and was placed on waivers on Sunday in order to report back to the American Hockey League. The 27-year-old defenceman has played in one game for the Marlies this season and had 13 points in 63 games for the AHL squad in 2024-25.

The improvement just happens to sync with the return of Chris Tanev. Tanev returned to the lineup on December 23 against the Pittsburgh Penguins. And the Maple Leafs' defense looked overhauled. All of a sudden, the Leafs have a serviceable defense core. Tanev, along with waiver claim Troy Stecher, has added stability to the blue line. That's not hyperbole. The eye test confirms it. The Pittsburgh game was a good example.

As always, in season shopping is a bit more limited, and impulse buying has been a mistake in the past and accepting the best of inferior options is part of what has got the Leafs into their current predicament. Although Brad Treliving provided Craig Berube with a second vote of confidence on December 23, it probably doesn't hurt to at least know who is out there and if there is a potential fit for the Leafs on the coaching or managing side of the business.

Last year, the Blue Jays practically fell flat with their worst performance during this part of the decade when they finished dead last in the American League East with a 74-88 record. Not only that, many of their stars were underperforming while they had a mass exodus of players at the trade deadline just hoping that they could acquire some key pieces to help their future.

In the NHL, not all wins carry the same weight, and divisional games often matter most when shaping the standings. Points earned against familiar rivals don't just add up; they directly push teams up or down in the standings. That's where the Toronto Maple Leafs have fallen short so far this season.

We're really lucky at The Leafs Nation to get to discuss this team with you, through our editorials and news. It's been awesome to see Leafs Morning Take and Leafs After Dark turn into destinations where fans and analysts alike can get together to discuss what's going on with this team, and there's certainly been a lot to go over during what's been a disappointing season for the Buds.

DISCLAIMER: The 'top stories' are simply ranked based on how much traffic they garnered for our site over the past calendar year. This is not an opinionated Top 10. The topic that made up the majority of our content between the end of the 2024-25 playoffs and the start of free agency was the Mitch Marner saga and everything that went into it. Whether Marner should stay, whether he wanted to, whether the Leafs wanted to bring him back, and where it all went wrong.