Ex-Leafs Rise Up In Their Debuts

The Toronto Maple Leafs have opened the 2026-27 regular season with a split of back-to-back home games: a 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday and a 2-1 victory over the NY Islanders on Wednesday. The club will get a few days to settle in with some of their new players before finishing off a four-game homestand against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday and the Nashville Predators next Tuesday before heading out on the road.

While Leafs fans are focused more on some of the new additions to the roster, they are also keeping a watchful eye on those who were sent out this summer and just before the start of the season. New addition Kirill Marchenko has been impressive thus far on the wing of team captain Auston Matthews, with an assist in the first two games. 

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For those (like myself) who thought the trade of Matthew Knies was a mistake because he is just as much of a scorer and more cost-efficient than the big Russian, his debut with Columbus provides some evidence for that claim. Playing on the top line with Adam Fantilli and Kent Johnson, Knies scored twice, added an assist, and had four shots on goal in a 6-3 Blue Jackets win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Another former Leaf who was comically misused since playing his first game with the Leafs in 2020 was Nick Robertson. In spite of his speed and top-six skill set, the smallish forward very rarely played in an offensive role on the top two lines, and in spite of limited ice time, he averaged 15 goals over the last three seasons. 

Robertson was sent to Pittsburgh for a 2028 fourth-round pick, and Pens head coach Dan Muse has placed him with……you guessed it……Sidney Crosby on the top line, and in his debut, he scored the opening goal and a short-handed marker in a 7-0 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. 

The following night, the Flyers started ex-Leafs goalie Joseph Woll in New Jersey against the Devils, and all he did was stop 41 shots in a 3-2 overtime loss. 

The issue with all of these deals is poor asset management on the part of Leafs GM John Chayka. The Woll deal to Philadelphia was primarily made because the Flyers wanted Woll and would give up something for him, while trading the oft-injured Anthony Stolarz would have cost Toronto assets to get rid of him. The deal resulted in the Leafs getting a third-round pick (Juuso Ainasto), Emil Andrae, and Sam Ersson. Ersson was flipped to Ottawa for a fifth-round pick, but Andrae was purportedly acquired to help the club’s skating and speed on the back end. 

After a lacklustre preseason, Andrae was flipped to Columbus in the Marchenko deal, which means that Chayka dealt a younger, cheaper, and less injury-prone goalie for a pair of draft picks. Robertson was never, ever given a serious chance in Toronto to play the role that the Penguins are giving him from the first game, and if he scores 25 to 30 goals in Pittsburgh, the Leafs organization will have egg on their face.