Official 2026/2027 Toronto Maple Leafs prediction thread

The best offseason move was and why?

Bob.

It’s a huge gamble given his age and how bad he was last year, but they’re hoping they get another Belfour run. The way the Leafs are built, they have to pray and hope a goalie can stand on his head and the only guy out there who can do that is Bob. He’s a tremendous professional so his attitude will be great for the team. Unfortunately, his best days may be behind him so he’ll only be able to do so much for this team that has so many holes in so many key areas.

The worst offseason move was and why?

Trading Knies. Huge mistake. Younger, bigger, more physical player on a great contract. And he always stepped up his play in the playoffs. Marchenko is not completely trash but he’s a bigger version of Nylander. One-way player, not physical enough for his size and getting paid more than Marner before playing even 1 second for the Leafs.

Trading Woll was a bad move too. He’s younger and better than Stolarz. He would have fit perfectly as the back-up and a better plan B if Bob fails or gets hurt.

This player is actually pretty good but everybody hates him.

Mitch Marner. Led the playoffs in scoring and went to a Cup Final. Fuck every single one of you who doubted him. The Leafs were retarded for letting him walk for nothing. And after one season, he makes less than Marchenko. Retarded management forgiven by retarded fans.

These players are actually garbage but everybody thinks they’re good.

Raddysh. He had one huge year playing on a stacked offensive team with a superstar goalie behind him. He’s grossly overrated and Tampa Bay knew the type of grenade they were dumping on the Leafs. Huge contract and unlikely to replicate his offense from last year. He’s also 30+, slow and trash defensively. This will be the next Rielly contract.

Paul. Best days are behind him and Tampa Bay, again, wisely dumped him on the Leafs. He’s overpaid and the Leafs gave up too much to get him. But because he’s from Toronto and the new guy, everybody loves him unconditionally. He can’t skate and defensively sucks.

Roslovic. Absolute trash player. Matthews lost all his friends so he had to have another buddy flown in. He sucks defensively, he disappears after December (including the playoffs) and he’s grossly overpaid. Would rather have seen them bring in Bunting, Tarasenko and Laine instead of Roslovic and Sissons who cost the Leafs 8 million combined.

If I was GM, this is what I would have done.

A lot of things VERY differently including drafting Stenberg.

President of Hockey Ops: Ron Francis

– Figure head, hockey mind, talks to the media, reports to Pelley, keeps him the fuck away from the team and has a direct connection to Rod Brind’Amour for future recruitment.

VP of Hockey Ops: Chris Pronger

– Learns the ropes as an executive, brings a great hockey mind to decisions being made, knows what a winner looks like on the ice, doesn’t build a pussy ass team.

General Manager: Ross Mahoney

– Runs day to day operations from contracts to trade talks. Understands hockey from the draft outward which is the most important key to success in this rebuild.

Director of Analytics: John Chayka

– Grossly overpay this guy to take the role below GM but give him the chance to be promoted if he succeeds. Runs all the numbers on everything.

Capologist: Brandon Prindham

– Keeps the Leafs under the cap, gives him more time to prove he can be promoted.

Assistant GM / GM of the Marlies: Ryan Hardy

– Continues to run the Marlies with the addition of more prospects for player development. Given the opportunity to be promoted from within in time.

Director of Scouting: Ryan Bowness

– Attacks the draft, rebuilds the Leafs farm system, another future candidate for promotion.

Tanking Head Coach: Craig Berube.

– Tanks the team but builds accountability.

Future Real Head Coach 2029: Rod Brind’Amour.

– Takes over the team of the future and runs them like a machine.

If the Leafs were to grossly overpay this executive team (5+ million each, 30-40 million total which you can take away from the roster while you rebuild), I don’t think any one of them would refuse that type of money, regardless of their role. That to me is a team of hockey minds, executives and professionals that can turn this franchise around with a proper rebuild.

Trade Matthews and Nylander at the 2027 draft. Trade everybody else over 25 at the deadline / the draft. Tank in 2028. Tank in 2029. Offer McDavid max money in July 2029. Sign Brind’Amour as head coach.

That’s the rebuild plan. It can still happen if they get a good season out of Matthews and trade him with 1 year left on his deal.

Player Stat Predictions

Forwards:

🔹 Teddy Blueger – 4 goals, 12 assists, 16 points. Decent 4th line center but nothing special.
🔹 Easton Cowan – 19 goals, 23 assists, 40 points. Will take a step forward offensively but still very small player without exceptional speed.
🔹 Brandon Duhaime – 3 goals, 9 assists, 12 points. Great character player, hits everybody but won’t score enough to play higher than the 4th line.
🔹 Bo Groulx – 4 goals, 14 assists, 18 points. Career AHLer, shouldn’t have made the team over Lorentz with plenty of unsigned UFAs out there.
🔹 Zack MacEwen – 1 goals, 2 assists, 3 points. Punching bag.
🔹 Gavin McKenna – 14 goals, 33 assists, 46 points. Will absolutely suck for the start of the season. Will absolutely suck defensively the entire season. Too weak, too small.
🔹 Kirill Marchenko – 31 goals, 40 assists, 71 points. Not worth Knies, will be grossly overpaid next year.
🔹 Auston Matthews – 44 goals, 42 assists, 86 points. Rebound season but not the same guy he once was. If he has a great year, trade him immediately and recover maximum value for a rebuild.
🔹 William Nylander – 37 goals, 46 assists, 83 points. Still won’t play well defensively. Ever.
🔹 Nick Paul – 14 goals, 14 assists, 28 points. Overpaid, slow, defensive trash.
🔹 Jack Roslovic – 19 goals, 18 assists, 37 points. Will score 80% of his goals and points in 2026 then disappear in 2027 including the playoffs, if they even make it.
🔹 Colton Sissons – 7 goals, 10 assists, 17 points. Good player but grossly overpaid. Will not score enough to earn his cap hit.
🔹 John Tavares – 34 goals, 48 assists, 82 points. Older, slower and will get caved in defensively. If he stops scoring, truly useless on the ice. Great guy though.

Defencemen:

🔹 Nick Blankenburg – 2 goals, 5 assists, 7 points. Another midget on D.
🔹 Oliver Ekman-Larsson – 6 goals, 29 assists, 35 points. Steady but overworked.
🔹 Jake McCabe – 4 goals, 18 assists, 22 points. Should be bottom pair D.
🔹 Darren Raddysh – 14 goals, 37 assists, 51 points. Overrated.
🔹 Morgan Rielly – 7 goals, 33 assists, 40 points. Pylon.
🔹 Troy Stecher – 3 goals, 10 assists, 13 points. Another midget.
🔹 Chris Tanev – 2 goals, 12 assists, 14 points. One bad hit away from retirement. And maybe a wheelchair.

Goalies:

🔹 Sergei Bobrovsky – 33 wins, 18 losses, 3 OTL, .909 SV%, 2.90 GAA.
🔹 Anthony Stolarz – 10 wins, 7 losses, 3 OTL, .903 SV%, 3.10 GAA. Will eventually get hurt.
🔹 Artur Akhtyamov – 3 wins, 5 losses, 2 OTL, .890 SV%, 3.20 GAA. Will only play if Stolarz gets hurt before January.

269 goals for.
251 goals against.

LTIR:

🔹 Max Domi – Career over.
🔹 Dakota Joshua – Pylon.
🔹 Cade Webber – Who? Huge pylon.

🔹 Elvis Merzļikins – 4 wins, 3 losses, 3 OTL, .895 SV%, 3.10 GAA. Will play if Stolarz gets hurt after January.

Team Predictions

The top 3 in the Atlantic Division will be – Florida, Tampa Bay, Montreal

The top 3 in the Metro Division will be – Carolina, Washington, Pittsburgh

The Eastern Wild card teams will be – Boston, Toronto

The top 3 in the Central Division will be – Colorado, Minnesota, Dallas

The top 3 in the Pacific Division will be – Edmonton, Vegas, San Jose

The Western Wild card teams will be – Utah, Anaheim

The team with the best offseason was – Washington
The team with the worst offseason was – Buffalo

The best team in the NHL will be – Colorado
The worst team in the NHL will be – Calgary

The most improved team in the NHL will be – Toronto
The biggest disappointment in the NHL will be – Buffalo

The team to win the East will be – Carolina
The team to win the West will be – Colorado

Major Award Predictions

The Art Ross winner will be – McDavid
The Norris Trophy winner will be – Makar
The Richard Trophy winner will be – MacKinnon
The Lester B. Pearson winner will be – McDavid
The Selke winner will be – Marner
The Vezina winner will be – Vasilevskiy
The Calder Trophy winner will be – Martone

Playoff Predictions

If Carolina does acquire Hellebuyck…

The Stanley Cup winner will be – Carolina
The Conn Smythe winner will be – Hellebuyck

If not…

The Stanley Cup winner will be – Florida
The Conn Smythe winner will be – Barkov

If you remember nothing else I said, remember this.

Leafs will be better than last year, flirt with a wild card spot and enjoy an early exit in the playoffs if everything goes perfect. They aren’t a real contender. They will rely too much on the goalies to stand on their head while the 2nd line and leaky blueline will give up too many chances and goals against and force the offense to score more goals with a bottom six that can’t score and a top-six that is too soft. This team needs to blow it up and rebuild while they can still recover big assets for their star players.