Chris Tanev’s return to the Maple Leafs lineup comes at exactly the right time for a team trying to stop a western trip from slipping further away.
Toronto has spent the past few games fighting its own defensive habits, and Tanev has been missed for every bit of the nine-game stretch since he suffered an upper-body injury on Oct. 10 against the Colorado Avalanche. On Friday in Vancouver, after practice, he said the signs were encouraging for Saturday’s game against the Canucks.
“Feel good, ready to rumble, hopefully,” Tanev said. “Not going to get into specifics (regarding the injury). Something happened in Colorado that didn’t feel great, but I’m over that now and hopefully as I get playing here it goes well.”
That’s the kind of update the Leafs needed. Tanev has a way of making things calmer in his own end, and when he’s out, that poise is hard to replace.
Toronto can score - that much has not been the problem. Auston Matthews was fourth in National Hockey League scoring before Friday’s games, and William Nylander sat 10th.
The Leafs were also fifth with 33 goals at five-on-five.
But the other side of that equation has been rougher. Toronto has allowed 38 goals at five-on-five, and that’s where Tanev’s presence matters most.
The matchup in Vancouver only sharpens the point. The Canucks arrive at Saturday’s game with a 1-10-1 record in their last 12, after winning two of their first three games of 2026-27, and they’ve surrendered even more goals at five-on-five than Toronto, with 44.
At practice, Tanev skated with Morgan Rielly, while Troy Stecher, who had been paired with Rielly, dropped down and lined up with Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Tanev also said this injury is not the same as the core muscle problem that hampered him last season and limited him to 11 games.
“There is always concern when playing hockey,” Tanev said of the possibility of aggravating his latest injury. “It’s a physical sport and things happen. It’s a lot better than what happened last year.”
The Leafs had won four straight before their recent slide, then turned in poor outings in losses to Calgary and Seattle. With Tanev back, the timing lines up neatly as Toronto tries to recover two points on a trip that has gone off the rails since the blowout win over Mike Babcock’s Edmonton Oilers last Saturday.
Goaltending is another piece of the puzzle. After Sergei Bobrovsky struggled badly in a 5-4 loss to the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, the Leafs will have decisions to make once they return home for a six-game homestand that begins Tuesday against the Utah Mammoth. How that plays out in net remains to be seen, though the sports science staff will have a say, and giving Stolarz another shot against Utah would not be a bad idea.
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