3 biggest disappointments of the Toronto Maple Leafs 2024-25 season so far
Which Maple Leafs players have failed to impress so far this year?
Following the thrilling 4-3 come-from-behind overtime win against the strong Washington Capitals team on Wednesday night, the Toronto Maple Leafs improved to a solid 10-6-2 on the year. They were able to accomplish it by overcoming some adversity with goals being called back, along with facing a hot goaltender in Logan Thompson who was unbeaten on the season.
Though their overall play has been somewhat disapointing to date, the Toronto Maple Leafs now find themselves among the top five in the Eastern Conference and among the top eight in the entire league just a little over a month into the 2024-25 NHL season.
With the Florida Panthers now within their sights, they could even start challenging for the division lead. That said, Florida does have two games in hand and are winning their games a lot more decisively.
The Leafs to date have been helped by the surprising play of various players, including free agent signees Anthony Stolarz and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, along with sophomore Matthew Knies just to name a few.
Together with the strong play of the usual core four members, along with a streaking Morgan Rielly, they have given the Leafs and their loyal fans much to cheer about and look forward to this year.
However, there still have been a select few that has surprisingly struggled despite the great success of their teammates around them. Here, we will take a look at three Toronto Maple Leafs players that have disappointed with their play so far this season. Hopefully, they will be able to turn things around soon and become key contributors once again in due time.
3 biggest disappointments of the Toronto Maple Leafs 2024-25 season so far
Nick Robertson
After several previous failed attempts, Nick Robertson finally managed to stick in the NHL with the Leafs for the bulk of the 2023-24 season. In total, he played 56 games, posting 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points.
More importantly, Robertson helped provide some much-needed secondary scoring from the bottom-six, as the bulk of the offense had been carried mainly by the top two Leafs lines.
There was some controversy this summer as Robertson requested a trade, but ultimiately he found himself re-signing with the Leafs.
Following his so-called mini-breakout from 2023-24, much more was expected out of Robertson this year now with almost a season’s worth of NHL experience under his belt. This was especially the case after being one of the best Leafs players throughout training camp when he recorded 5 goals in just four preseason games, while looking strong and dangerous with the puck whenever he was on the ice.
However, since the start of the 2024-25 regular season, all of that offense has surprisingly dried up for Robertson. In 15 games played to date, he has recorded just one goal on 21 shots while averaging close to 12 minutes of ice time per night.
At that rate, Robertson is on pace for only 5 goals and as many points for the entire season, which would be a complete disaster for the aspiring left winger looking to cement his status as a solid NHL player. It appears as though he could only go up from here on out, but he will need to do it soon before he starts losing his regular starting spot in the lineup, just like he did on Wednesday night.
However, it should be noted that Robertson hasn't played badly at all. He's winning his minutes and has an expected goals rating of 50%. The Leafs coach is just not playing him with any other scorers, which limits his usefulness.
Robertson has played mostly with Pontus Holmber and Max Domi, two players who are also struggling. A run with Matthews, Marner or Tavares would give Robertson a much fairer shot at success. To date, the one goal is disapointing, but his overall play has been solid.
Pontus Holmberg
Following a solid rookie season in 2022-23 in which he posted 5 goals and 13 points over 37 games, Pontus Holmberg became more of a regular in the Leafs lineup in the 2023-24 season.
So far, Holmberg does not look like a capable top-nine NHL player and should either be on the fourth line, or more likely, in the AHL.
Holmberg recorded 7 goals and 17 points in over 54 games of action last year. It wasn’t the expected jump in production that most had expected, but it nonetheless provided some offensive spark from the Leafs bottom-six. More importantly, Holmberg managed to make the playoff roster this time around, but failed to record a point in seven games against the Boston Bruins.
After a solid training camp this year, Holmberg managed to once again secure a regular spot on the Maple Leafs roster heading into the 2024-25 season. However, despite this, Holmberg has been awful.
The Leafs are losing his minutes, and they get out-possessed, out-shot, and out-chanced when he's on the ice. Holmberg's 39% xGoals rating is the worst among Leafs forwards. His days of playing regularly look numbered as soon as players start to return from the IR.
Entering Wednesday’s game, he had actually compiled just 1 assist in 15 games until finally registering his second assist on the season against the Capitals. That assist though was only a secondary one with John Tavares doing the bulk of the nifty work to set up McMann on his goal.
If he keeps maintaining his current scoring pace, Holmberg will only have 10 points by the end of the season, which just doesn’t cut it for a third year player who was expected to grow in his game by now. Together with a CF% dropping to 48% this season, along with a dismal 39% expected goals rate in 5-on-5 situations, he may no longer be playable if he doesn’t step up his game soon enough.
Max Domi
Finally, we have one of the Leafs key signings this past offseason in Max Domi. Inked to a four-year extension worth $15 million, Domi was expected to take on a bigger role this season in contributing to the Leafs offensive attack. Especially after how he came alive during the second half of the 2023-24 season when he put up 4 goals, 18 assists for 22 points with a whopping 62 shots on goal in his final 28 games while averaging just over 15 minutes of ice time.
However, Domi has been the biggest disappointment for the Leafs so far this season given what they were expecting to get out of him after signing the huge deal.
In 18 games thus far, he has managed just 6 assists on 23 shots on goal while averaging similar to the ice time that he received from last season. On track for less than 30 points for the year, that would represent his lowest offensive production ever in his NHL career, excluding the COVID-shortened schedule during the 2020-21 season. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com and all salaries from PuckPedia.com)
The most worrisome factor is the fact that Domi hasn’t been limited to playing just in the bottom-six, as he has seen ample time with the top-six, especially in recent games with Matthews sidelined with an upper body injury. However, somehow that has not made any difference for Domi, as he has been held pointless in his last 12 games while often being invisible at times.
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With an annual salary hit of $3.75 million, that kind of output is just not good enough for a Leafs squad counting on him to help supplement their offense this season. As a result, Domi will need to start producing more before he becomes a potential trade candidate or buyout option down the road.