The Maple Leafs’ Core Four plan made sense only if the cap kept climbing. That was the gamble. Toronto locked up William Nylander in 2018, then Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews in 2019, betting that a rising salary cap would leave enough room to keep the rest of the roster intact.
Then COVID hit, and the whole thing got squeezed.
As Matthew Cauz put it on TSN’s 1st Up, the flat-cap era wrecked Toronto’s blueprint.
“The cap stops. From 2020 to 2024, the cap went from $81.5 million to $83.5 million.
And if there was no COVID, and all the money that would have come in with the Seattle franchise, maybe the Maple Leafs get to keep Zach Hyman. Maybe the Maple Leafs get to keep other players.”
That was the heart of the issue. The plan wasn’t built for a cap freeze, and the freeze arrived right as Nylander, Marner, Matthews, and a still highly productive John Tavares were in their primes. Morgan Rielly, meanwhile, was still a fringe top-pairing blueliner.
Toronto still has to own the failures that came with that era, especially the inability to get past the first round of the playoffs. But the flat cap did change the roster math in a major way, and Hyman was the clearest casualty.
The Leafs lost the ideal winger for Matthews and Marner, and while Michael Bunting did a decent job in that spot, it wasn’t the same. Toronto basically let a 50-goal scorer leave because it didn’t want to pay him.
The cap squeeze may also have changed other decisions. The Leafs could have kept players like Michael Bunting, Alex Kerfoot, Ilya Mikheyev, and even short-term additions such as Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari. A higher cap might also have opened the door to chasing a top-end goalie instead of leaning on Freddie Andersen and then living through the mess that became Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray.
Even so, the Leafs still had a real shot.
Their best chance came in 2021, when they rolled through the artificially created Canadian division and grabbed a 3-1 series lead over the Montreal Canadiens. Then came the collapse, a brutal moment that still sits near the top of the franchise’s list of painful exits. Some will point to the 2025 Game 7 loss to the Panthers as the defining heartbreak, but 2021’s blown lead against Montreal had a chance to be even worse.
Had Toronto finished that series, the path could have opened the same way it did for Montreal, with a run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final. And if the Leafs had reached the Final, even a loss there might have changed the entire feel of the group’s story, the way the Colorado Avalanche eventually broke through in 2022.
Instead, it stays in the realm of what-ifs.
And now Toronto gets another chance, with the remnants of the old Core Four still in place.
In Other News...
Easton Cowan Is Chasing Something Leafs Fans Have Waited To See
Easton Cowan has already built a rare postseason rsum before even settling into the NHL conversation in Toronto. He won the Memorial Cup with the London Knights in 2025, then added the Calder Cup with the Toronto Marlies in 2026, giving Leafs fans a glimpse of a prospect who has been around winning from the start.
Now there is a chance for something even stranger, and maybe unprecedented, if the Maple Leafs can finish the job in 2027. A Stanley Cup would give Cowan three straight championships in three different seasons, a run that is notable enough on its own and unusual enough that it is not even clear whether anyone has pulled it off before. [Read more 🡒]
Easton Cowan Suddenly Faces A Brutal Leafs Reality
The Maple Leafs spent the offseason piling up forward depth, and it has already made the picture around Easton Cowan a lot less straightforward. Toronto brought in Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime and Teddy Blueger, then added Gavin McKenna in the draft, all while Jack Roslovic is projected to fit into a top-six role. For a young winger trying to force his way into the mix, that kind of added competition changes the math quickly.
Cowan still has a path, but it may hinge on what he does in training camp and how quickly he can show he belongs against a deeper group of NHL options. If the Leafs decide he needs more reps and more confidence before carving out a role, the AHL could be the most realistic next stop. For now, his challenge is less about talent than timing, with Torontos roster leaving very little room to learn on the job. [Read more 🡒]
Maple Leafs Suddenly Look Like A Team Fans Should Fear Again
After missing the playoffs, the Maple Leafs have had a full offseason to rest, reset and reshape the roster for 2026-27. The headlining addition is rookie Gavin McKenna, but Toronto also brought in a group that adds depth and experience in different spots, including Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Jack Roslovic, Brandon Duhaime, defenseman Darren Raddysh and goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.
It is the kind of broad roster makeover that can change the feel of a team quickly, especially for a club coming off a year that fell short of expectations. On paper, the mix gives Toronto more options up front, more stability on the back end and a new look in goal, which is enough to make the Leafs appear far more dangerous than they did a season ago, even if the real answer still has to wait for the games to start. [Read more 🡒]