The Maple Leafs are starting to reveal a little more of Jim Hiller’s hand, and the clearest clue came in a tight game against Vancouver. When the margin shrank and the pressure rose, Hiller’s choices told a story about trust, mistakes, and who gets leaned on when Toronto is trying to protect a lead.
Easton Cowan and Gavin McKenna were at the center of it. Cowan had a rough second period, turning the puck over twice on the same shift, and Hiller responded by sitting him for a stretch.
Later, when Vancouver cut the lead to 3-2, neither Cowan nor McKenna saw much ice time. The message was plain enough: offensive skill gets you in the door, but in close games, reliability matters just as much.
That doesn’t mean either player is suddenly in trouble. The bigger takeaway is that Hiller seems willing to let young players learn on the job, while also making it clear that a mistake can cost you a shift. For a team trying to win now and develop at the same time, that kind of balance can be useful.
There’s also a case to be made that Toronto’s defence is getting undersold. The usual criticism centers on depth and health, and those concerns are real, but this blue line may be stronger than people think.
If Chris Tanev can stay healthy, the group looks solid. Morgan Rielly has also looked much more like himself under Hiller, though there’s an interesting twist there: Rielly may no longer be viewed as the club’s top defenceman.
Depending on how you rank the group, he could sit fourth behind Darren Raddysh, Tanev, and Jake McCabe.
That isn’t a knock on Rielly so much as a reflection of what’s around him. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Travis Stecher give Toronto a respectable third pair, and while injuries and a lack of proven depth remain concerns, the organization does have some options. William Villeneuve is expected back from knee surgery in December, and Marshall Rifai, Philippe Myers, and other developing defencemen are in the system, with Ben Danford further down the road.
There were a couple of other encouraging notes from the Vancouver game as well. Dakota Joshua may have turned in his best outing yet in a Maple Leafs uniform.
He played just 11 minutes, but he stood out for the right reasons. And Anthony Stolarz picked up his third assist of the season on the empty-net goal, an unusual number for a goaltender in just six starts.
That gives him more points than Tanev and Ekman-Larsson, and ties him with McCabe.
Toronto now has a quieter stretch ahead, with only one game in six days. That should give Hiller a chance to use practice time to sharpen details, reinforce systems, and maybe let a few banged-up players catch their breath.
The broader picture is encouraging on the offensive side, too. Even without John Tavares and Marchenko, the Maple Leafs keep finding ways to generate offence.
The next step is turning the promising signs into habits: young players earning more trust, the defence holding together, and the scoring staying spread around. There’s still work to do, but there’s enough here to look past the obvious questions.
In Other News...
Maple Leafs Make A Risky Lineup Gamble Before A Key Test
With a key test against the Utah Mammoth on deck, Jim Hiller is trying a different look in the Maple Leafs lineup, one that trades some finesse for a little more muscle. Gavin McKenna has been pushed down to the third line, while Dakota Joshua gets a chance in a more prominent role, a tweak aimed at giving Torontos second line more size and physicality as the game stakes rise.
The gamble is obvious for a team trying to find the right balance. Joshua has not played much this season, so there is some uncertainty baked into the move, and McKennas offensive influence figures to be reduced at even strength from a lower line. Even so, he is still expected to keep his power-play duties, which gives Toronto a way to preserve some of his impact while Hiller experiments with the rest of the forward group. [Read more 🡒]
Bobrovsky Has One Trait Leafs Fans Need To See Again
Sergei Bobrovskys early run with the Maple Leafs has been a reminder that goaltending is about more than just the numbers on a stat sheet. Through his first stretch in Toronto, the veteran has had moments where he looks capable of carrying a game, but the steady, dependable edge that teams lean on in tight spots has not shown up often enough for comfort.
What stands out most is the kind of save Toronto has been waiting to see more regularly. The Leafs have long valued a goalie who can steal a shift, settle a shaky sequence and erase a mistake at the exact moment it threatens to swing the game, the way Grant Fuhr built his reputation on timely stops. For a team chasing consistency, that trait matters as much as anything else Bobrovsky brings. [Read more 🡒]
Leafs Turnover Problem Puts Hillers Plan Under The Spotlight
The Maple Leafs are spending part of their pregame conversation on the details around the crease, with Jim Hiller laying out the thinking behind the goaltending plan and the way the club has handled Anthony Stolarz in the lead-up to the rematch against Utah. Hiller also pointed to Sergei Bobrovskys professionalism and routine, underscoring that Torontos scheduling and lineup choices have been handled with an eye toward keeping everyone prepared for the next step.
Beyond the goalie picture, the bigger issue remains the one that has followed the Leafs into this matchup: turnovers. Hiller said the team has to clean that up if it wants a better result, and he also touched on Easton Cowans return to the top line as part of the broader lineup picture. It leaves Toronto with a familiar mix of urgency and uncertainty, with the details of how the night unfolds still to be sorted out. [Read more 🡒]