Mike Babcock’s first trip back to Toronto is already circled.
The Oilers coach is set to return on November 14, and the backdrop could hardly be more loaded. He’ll be back in the building where he spent five seasons guiding the Maple Leafs, and he’ll do it against a team still carrying plenty of familiar faces from his time behind the bench.
Babcock coached Toronto from 2015-16 through 2019, posting a 173-133-45 record. The Leafs made the playoffs three times under him - in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 - but never made it out of the first round.
He was fired on Nov. 20 during an 0-5-1 skid, with then-GM Kyle Dubas and then-President Brendan Shanahan deciding the team needed a different voice. Toronto replaced him with Marlies coach Sheldon Keefe.
Later, after new information surfaced about his conduct in the Maple Leafs locker room, and following a sudden resignation from Columbus in 2023 after an NHLPA investigation, he stepped away from coaching in the NHL.
Now he’s back, with Edmonton bringing him out of retirement to lead the Oilers through 2026-27 and beyond.
That makes his first game in Toronto a reunion with a core he helped usher into the league. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are still there nearly a decade later, while Morgan Rielly remains the club’s longest-tenured Maple Leaf, though he was already in Toronto a few years before Babcock arrived.
The names have stayed, but the roles have changed. Matthews is now the captain and the face of the franchise, one of the best goal scorers of his generation.
Nylander has grown into a reliable 35-plus-goal threat who sits near the top of the Leafs’ scoring charts every year.
There’s another familiar face on the other side too. Jim Hiller, once an assistant with Toronto under Babcock, is now running the Maple Leafs himself.
For Babcock, the Edmonton job comes with a different kind of roster than the one he once had in Toronto. The Oilers hand him Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman as a top-end offensive force, along with stars such as Evan Bouchard, Jake Walman and Frederik Andersen.
It’s the kind of team built to survive the first round - something Babcock never managed in Toronto. And there’s a sharp layer of irony in the whole setup: the coach who was once brought in to help Auston Matthews develop now gets the assignment of helping McDavid chase the championship that has long eluded him.
He arrives in Toronto with a fresh start, a fresh perspective, and the backing of upper management and a roster that pushed for him to be hired. Babcock once signed the richest coaching contract in league history, only to be let go with four years still left on the deal when the results weren’t good enough. Now he gets another shot at Scotiabank Arena, this time with another superstar-led team and a chance to rewrite the ending.
In Other News...
Matthew Knies Deal Already Looks Better For The Leafs
Matthew Knies long-term deal with the Maple Leafs was signed with the usual mix of hope and risk that comes with paying for upside before it has fully matured. Toronto committed six years at a $7.75 million average annual value in 2025, betting that Knies would keep trending into a key top-six piece and that the price would look sensible as the salary cap and comparable contracts kept moving. At the time, it was a notable investment in a player still building his full resume.
Now the market around other young forwards is starting to make that number look even more reasonable. Cutter Gauthier, a restricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks, is reportedly in negotiations that could land in the $15-17 million AAV range, with Leo Carlssons recent $18 million AAV extension hanging over those talks as a reference point. Knies and Gauthier are different players in different situations, but the broader takeaway for Toronto is hard to miss: a contract that once looked ambitious can start to feel sharp if the next wave of comparables keeps climbing. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Projected Lineup Puts Familiar Faces In A Tough Spot
The Maple Leafs projected 2026-27 lineup offers a snapshot of how much the roster could change after a round of organizational adjustments, with new acquisitions and coaching tweaks reshaping the teams balance up front and on the back end. The exercise is less about where Toronto is today and more about how the club might try to blend scoring punch with more reliable two-way play if the right pieces settle into place.
What makes the projection interesting for Leafs followers is the way it creates pressure points for familiar faces while opening the door for newcomers to carve out meaningful roles. Health and consistency remain part of the conversation, especially in goal, where the team is still trying to sort out how much trust to place in Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz as the position gets redefined around them. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Camp Could Get Complicated Thanks To Two Overlooked Names
Training camp usually starts with the obvious names, the players everyone assumes are already locked in or fighting for the last few spots, but Bo Groulx and Marshall Rifai are the kinds of depth pieces who can quietly make things interesting for the Maple Leafs. Groulx brought good energy and solid play with the Marlies, and he even got a brief look with Toronto last season, which at least puts him on the radar when camp opens.
Rifai is the other name worth tracking because his game is built around physicality and defense, the sort of profile that can stand out if the new coaching staff wants a different look from its bottom-end options. Neither player is a favorite to break through, and neither comes with any guarantee, but both have enough going for them to keep this camp from being as straightforward as it first appears. [Read more 🡒]