The Toronto Maple Leafs are spiraling-and not in the “every team hits a rough patch” kind of way. This is deeper.
This is a team that’s not just losing games-they’re losing their grip on the season. And with each lopsided loss, the pressure cooker under general manager Brad Treliving is reaching dangerous levels.
Let’s look at the facts: after a 5-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken and a chaotic 7-4 meltdown against the Buffalo Sabres, the Leafs have dropped four straight and are 2-6-2 in their last ten. They now sit ten points out of a playoff spot.
That’s not just a slump-that’s a freefall. What once looked like a team trying to find its footing has collapsed into something far more troubling.
Around the league, the tone has shifted. This isn’t frustration anymore-it’s resignation.
TSN’s Craig Button didn’t mince words: “It’s over. They’re not good enough.”
That’s a hard pill to swallow for a franchise that started the season with playoff-and even Cup-aspirations. Button called the team’s earlier stretch of solid play “a mirage.”
And honestly? Right now, it’s hard to argue.
The mood in Toronto reflects that same sense of finality. Jay Rosehill, reacting to the homestand that saw the Leafs give up a season’s worth of defensive breakdowns in a matter of days, said it best: “They just gave their season away… Just flabbergasting.” And when longtime observers start calling this the most disappointing Leafs season in over a decade, you know things have gone off the rails.
Trade Deadline Turmoil
Here’s where things get really uncomfortable: we’re just weeks away from the trade deadline, and instead of debating which piece might push Toronto into contender status, the conversation has flipped. Now the question is whether this team should be sellers-and what that even looks like.
Insider Frank Seravalli didn’t hold back. “I think any talk about this team potentially being a buyer… is lunacy,” he said.
And he’s not wrong to raise the red flags. The Leafs have allowed 45 goals in their last nine games.
That’s the worst nine-game defensive stretch this franchise has had in 34 years. That’s not just a bad run-that’s historically bad.
So what does Brad Treliving do now? Standing pat feels like waving the white flag.
Buying would be reckless, a denial of reality. Selling?
That’s the nuclear option, and it comes with the admission that this season-and maybe this core-just isn’t it.
It’s a brutal spot for any GM. Treliving has to look at every player on the roster and ask the hard questions: Can this guy be part of the solution?
Or is it time to move on? And for those with trade protection, it means having some tough conversations about waiving clauses and starting fresh somewhere else.
The Bigger Picture
This isn’t about adding a top-six winger or a depth defenseman anymore. This is about trust-trust in the core, trust in the direction, trust in the identity of this team. Right now, it’s hard to find much of that.
You can forget any talk of chasing a big name like Artemi Panarin. That ship has sailed.
This is no longer a team that’s one piece away. This is a team that needs to decide whether the foundation is still worth building on-or if it’s time to tear it down and start again.
There are still games left on the schedule. Mathematically, the Leafs aren’t out of it.
But the mood around this team says otherwise. What we’re watching now isn’t a playoff push-it’s a reckoning.
And the clock is ticking.