The Toronto Maple Leafs have been off to a rough start for the 2025-26 NHL season. After looking like a top-tiered team in the league for much of the past few years, the Leafs have sure taken a step backwards this season, seeing their uncharacteristic struggles with sustainable offense, sound defense and goaltending. They haven’t really looked like this since the start of the Auston Matthews era in Toronto.
Whatever the issue may be, the Maple Leafs will need to turn things around soon enough. After all, they have now fallen all the way towards the basement of the Eastern Conference with about a quarter of the season in the books. Could Toronto reunite with some of their former players to help salvage the season? Here, we will take a look at 3 reunions the Maple Leafs should consider this year.
3 Maple Leafs reunions we would like to see this season
Timothy Liljegren
Some Toronto fans likely miss the years back when a young Morgan Rielly was leading the way for the Leafs blueline with his offensive prowess, while supplemented by the young core pieces in Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin in providing speedy, exciting hockey all around. However, that time has now passed as the Maple Leafs currently have an older core group of defensemen suiting up for them this season. With four of their main six blueliners already 30 or older, their defense has looked a lot slower and sluggish this year as a result.
As a result, bringing back someone like Liljegren could do wonders for the team. At only 26 years old, he would be able to inject some speed and energy back into the Leafs backend. More importantly, he has usually performed well when paired with an experienced veteran, just like when he had Mark Giordano as his trusted partner during his best seasons with Toronto. Recall that Liljegren never really got a chance to play for head coach Craig Berube as he was surprisingly traded to the San Jose Sharks after just getting into one game for the Leafs during the 2024-25 season. Let’s see what he can do to spark the team in a second go-around.
Luke Schenn
One of the main caveats for the Leafs defense this season is their inability to keep things clear in front of their own net. That has resulted in more goals by the opposition, with the 72 that they have given up, ranking them painfully second last in the NHL. What better way to resolve that problem than by bringing back one of the consistently top hitters in the league to help with the defense in Luke Schenn. After all, the last time he was in town, he helped the Leafs reach the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs while being a solid partner for Rielly.
This season, Schenn has been used primarily on the bottom pairing by the Winnipeg Jets while averaging just a little over 13 minutes a night. In 14 games played to date, the 36-year-old defenseman has recorded just one assist along with 29 hits and 18 shot blocks. Perhaps returning to Toronto for a third time will be a charm in enabling him to return to form to help stabilize the back end for the Leafs by providing that much-needed physical play in front of the net.
Nazem Kadri
It may seem like replaying a broken record for the past couple of years, but it would be great if the Maple Leafs can reunite with elite forward Nazem Kadri once and for all. The necessity for the Leafs in having a proven center behind Matthews and John Tavares became apparent after seeing Matthews go down to an injury this past week. Without the Leafs captain in the lineup, the lines being deployed by Torotno looked considerably less dangerous after the Tavares unit.
With Kadri, you get an elite scorer and point producer that can guarantee you 25+ goals and 60+ points per season even at age 35. More importantly, giving him the opportunity to return and help his old team to playoff success once again would allow him to officially erase his previous playoff mishaps with the Leafs and start a new chapter as a result. As for Toronto, getting someone with the calibre of Kadri to insert into their struggling lineup could be the perfect antidote to their current woes.