The Toronto Maple Leafs are paying for a long-running mistake, and it has left the roster painfully thin in all the wrong places.
Last season’s collapse made the problem impossible to ignore. Outside of Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly, the only other skaters the organization drafted were Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Easton Cowan, Joseph Woll and a re-acquired Dakota Joshua. For a team that spent nearly a decade living in the playoffs, that return on years of premium picks was shockingly small.
Montreal, by contrast, showed what a healthier pipeline can look like. The Canadiens were able to ice 13 or 14 of their own draftees and still had a deep AHL/NCAA/KHL system behind them. Toronto simply didn’t have that kind of base.
And this wasn’t some overnight failure. The damage was built over time, then made worse by two rough deadlines under Brad Treliving’s previous regime.
In 2025, the Maple Leafs sent out two first-round picks and two prospects for Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo. A year later, Laughton was moved for a conditional third.
That left Toronto bleeding assets for short-term help that never really changed the team’s ceiling. At one point, the organization was staring at maybe one first-rounder over a three-year stretch.
The new regime under GM John Chayka at least appears to understand the scale of the mess. Winning the lottery and landing Gavin McKenna first overall gave the franchise its biggest infusion of high-end talent in years. Knies is still a real bright spot from the old setup, and there are a few other young pieces hanging around.
But one star prospect won’t rebuild a pipeline that was allowed to dry out for a decade. The next few drafts, along with the development work under Chayka and Sundin, will tell the story of whether this turns into something lasting or just another temporary fix.
Montreal’s model offers the contrast. The Canadiens protected their picks, absorbed the losses, and built from the bottom with cost-controlled young players who fit the culture. Toronto is still trying to catch up to that reality.
McKenna is a strong beginning. The real question is whether the Maple Leafs finally start treating the draft like the foundation of the franchise instead of a tool for patching over short-term mistakes. For now, Chayka and Sundin have at least taken the first step toward fixing what may have been Toronto’s biggest problem of the past decade.
In Other News...
Leafs Fans Just Got A Reality Check On This Prospect
Tinus-Luc Koblars first taste of preseason action offered a reminder that even promising prospects rarely arrive in Toronto as finished products. The Maple Leafs second-round pick had a modest debut, and it was enough to cool some of the buzz around him after fans had started to imagine a quicker path to the NHL.
Last season in Sweden, Koblar put up 14 points in 47 games with Leksands in the SHL, a solid base but not the kind of production that screams instant readiness. The early read is that he may still need more time before jumping to the NHL, and perhaps even before taking the next step into the AHL, which is why another season in the SHL is being viewed as a sensible part of his development. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Opening Night Blue Line Sends A Clear Early Message
The Maple Leafs have their opening-night blue line in place, and the first look says plenty about how the team wants to start the 2026-27 season. Morgan Rielly is back on the top pair after missing preseason games because of a viral infection, and hell be flanked by newcomer Darren Raddysh in a setup that instantly gives the group a different feel. Behind them, Jake McCabe and Chris Tanev form the second pair, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Troy Stetcher round out the third.
Theres also a fourth pair in the mix with Emil Andrae and Nick Blankenburg, which gives Toronto a fuller picture of how the defensive rotation may settle in once the games begin. The pairings hint at a staff that wants a mix of stability, mobility and experience, even as it asks Rielly to jump right back into a leading role after the lost time in camp. For a team still shaping its early-season identity, the blue line is already sending a clear message about who the Maple Leafs trust most when the puck drops. [Read more 🡒]
Hiller Is Pushing Morgan Rielly Back To The Center Of It
Morgan Rielly has started to look like the kind of defenseman the Maple Leafs have always wanted him to be when he is at his best, and Jim Hiller is clearly leaning into that idea. During practice, Hiller pointed to the pairing with Darren Raddysh as a potential offensive defenseman combination, while also highlighting Riellys mindset and physical condition as reasons for optimism about where his game is headed.
The bigger sign for Toronto may be what Hiller said about Riellys renewed passion for the game, because that kind of confidence can change how a player carries himself on the ice. Hiller also gave an update on Dakota Joshua, saying the forward is close to being ready but not yet at full capacity, a reminder that Toronto is still juggling lineup decisions even as a few important pieces begin to settle back into place. [Read more 🡒]