The Maple Leafs are heading into 2026-27 with a power play that should look a whole lot different - and a whole lot more dangerous.
That’s the clearest takeaway from the offseason work done by John Chayka and Mats Sundin. Toronto spent the year chasing a better man-advantage, and the changes they made point to a real shift in how the team wants to attack.
The old setup needed a reset. This one is built to bring back a weapon the Leafs have been missing.
The warning signs were obvious. In December of 2025, a league-worst power play got assistant coach Marc Savard pushed out, and Steve Sullivan stepped in for the rest of the season.
Toronto did improve from there, climbing to 15th by the end of the year. But that still came after a fourth straight season of decline in the power-play rankings since the Leafs finished first in the NHL in 2021-22 with a 27.3% success rate.
For much of the Auston Matthews-William Nylander era, the Leafs’ power play has been one of the league’s better units. They’ve finished in the top ten eight times in ten seasons and landed in the top two four times. The problem now is that Toronto wants that kind of production again, but with a different look.
The biggest change is Darren Raddysh. Chayka’s sign-and-trade for the hard-shooting defenseman gives the Leafs something they haven’t really had with Matthews on the ice: a legitimate point-shot threat. Raddysh scored 10 of his 22 goals on the power play with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2025-26, and that kind of weapon changes the geometry of the unit.
That move also creates a real puzzle for coach Jim Hiller.
Matthews, Nylander, and Raddysh are the obvious locks on the top group. After that, the decisions get interesting fast.
First-overall pick Gavin McKenna, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies are all in the mix for the remaining spots, and each brings something different. McKenna will have to earn his place, but his playmaking eventually needs to be part of that Matthews-Nylander-Raddysh core.
Right now, Daily Faceoff and PuckPedia have Tavares on the top unit and McKenna on the second, but Hiller and his staff get the final call. At some point, one of Tavares or Knies is likely to slide down a group. Both are strong around the crease, while Tavares’ face-off work could be the edge that keeps him in the first unit picture.
Even if that happens, the second unit should be better equipped than it has been in recent years. Morgan Rielly, a longtime fixture on the top group, is now projected to be with the second unit.
Toronto also brought in Jack Roslovic, who scored six power-play goals for the Edmonton Oilers in 2025-26. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Easton Cowan round out what looks like a much more functional second wave.
That depth gives Hiller and new assistant Daniel Alfredsson, who is expected to have a major hand in the power play, more room to maneuver. The Leafs should no longer need to ride their first unit for nearly the full two minutes and only sprinkle in the second group at the end. There’s enough talent now to spread the work around.
It also opens the door for more internal competition. McKenna, Tavares, and Knies can be rotated depending on form, and the second unit gets a boost from names like Cowan, Roslovic, and the Rielly-Larsson pairing. The result is a power play with more flexibility and more options than Toronto has had in a while.
That was the goal for the Chayka-Sundin front office all along: get the Leafs’ power play back to the dominant level it once had. The pieces are in place now. What happens next depends on how the players and coaches make it work.
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Gudmundsson is not just a flyer on a later pick, either. Toronto appears to see him as part of a longer-term succession plan for its defense corps, with room for him to keep developing in North America. Whether he becomes the kind of steady, cost-controlled fit the organization is hoping for will depend on how quickly he adapts, but the Leafs clearly think there is more there than a depth add. [Read more 🡒]
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One possible answer is a familiar kind of training-camp insurance, with Toronto weighing a veteran option who has NHL experience and just spent time in the KHL. It would not change the outlook at the top of the depth chart, but it would give the Leafs another layer of protection if the kind of goalie trouble that tends to arrive unexpectedly starts to show up again. [Read more 🡒]
John Tavares Maple Leafs Signing Is Back In The Spotlight
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For Toronto, the case is another reminder of how much attention followed the captains arrival and how long the aftershocks from that decision can linger. The court has not ruled yet, leaving one more off-ice storyline hanging over a player whose move to the Maple Leafs already reshaped the franchise and still draws scrutiny years later. [Read more 🡒]