The Toronto Maple Leafs return home to face the New York Islanders and prohibitive Calder Trophy favorite Matthew Schaefer, a club that is likely heading to the postseason, while the Blue and White (wearing their Green and White St. Pats jerseys) are headed for an early exit for the first time in a decade.
While the Leafs main focus should be to lose as many games down the stretch to improve their chances at picking in the top five in the upcoming NHL Draft this June, the club has earned five of a possible six points with wins over Anaheim and Minnesota and a shootout loss in Buffalo.
The focus in the aftermath of the season-ending injury to Auston Matthews is the future, and what changes are in store for the organization this spring. While 16 teams will be beginning the two-month pursuit of the Stanley Cup, the higher ups at MLSE are already beginning their post-mortem on why the Leafs failed so dramatically and what can be done to quickly reverse the process.
Starting with the most likely of outcomes, the remaining 14 games will be the final in head coach Craig Berube’s tenure in Toronto. It is not all of his fault, but it is painfully apparent that after being brought in as a change of pace from Sheldon Keefe and to push the Leafs towards a Cup by demanding them to play a more physical and responsible style, the group is not capable of playing the type of hockey necessary to succeed in the postseason. Injuries have been a factor, but the biggest injury is a lack of will.
The area where there is no certainty is in management. GM Brad Treliving has made his share of mistakes, but not all of them were of his making. He was hired just over a month before the no-movement clause dropped on former Leaf Mitch Marner’s contract, but it appears his hiring was contingent on maintaining Brendan Shanahan’s flawed vision of keeping the core-four together and not changing course by trading one of them.
Treliving could not trade Marner until it was too late, and then doubled down on stupidity by not trading and re-signing William Nylander. The moves after that are all on him, including not getting top-10 protection for the 2026 first round traded for Brandon Carlo, and giving up another first-rounder for a fourth-line center in Scott Laughton. His future is likely tied to what marching orders MLSE will give Keith Pelley, who spent most of the last year eliminating an entire level of management from all of the Rogers sports franchises, except for the Blue Jays.
In a piece in the Athletic on Monday, Jonas Siegel ponders whether Pelley will replace Shanahan, and if that person will leave Treliving in place or fire him and hire the Leafs fourth GM in a decade. Another factor here is Matthews and his future in Toronto. With two years remaining on his deal, and insiders like Elliotte Friedman saying the Leafs captain and the club will meet after the season to discuss his future, Matthews’s opinion and input on the franchise’s direction will be weighed heavily.
What cannot be avoided is a long overdue upheaval of the Leafs roster. Not the “tear down to the studs” type of rebuild that some “experts” have advocated, but making deals that can move players out who are not willing or capable of doing what is necessary to win when it counts. Players like Nylander should be approached during the summer and asked to provide a list of preferred destinations to be traded to, but if that request falls on deaf ears, as it did with Morgan Rielly last summer, then making any change of direction will be as challenging as it was with the Muskoka Five more than 15 years ago.
