Throughout the 2025-26 NHL season, the Toronto Maple Leafs often found themselves among the conversation of swirling rumors of potential players that could be traded from the team. Who could fault the trade rumors, as the Maple Leafs struggled mightily coming out of the gate and was looking for ways to bolster the club before it was too late.
However, with their recent surge back up the standings and greatly improved play with their offense defense and goaltending of late, Toronto may actually be just rounding into form after facing much adversity during the first half of the season. As a result, perhaps they should think twice now before moving on from certain players that were subject to those trade rumors. Here, we will take a look at three Maple Leafs players that they should no longer seriously consider as trade bait.
Nick Robertson
Nick Robertson has seen his name thrown into trade talks for much of the past couple of seasons. After all, he never seemed to reach the level that many Leafs fans expected of him and had often struggled at times in maintaining consistent offensive output. Following his solid 2023-24 campaign in which Robertson recorded 14 goals and 13 assists for 27 points in 56 games, he regressed to 15 goals and 22 points in 69 games played in 2024-25.
As Robertson had another slow start to his current 2025-26 campaign, many pegged him as possible trade bait as perhaps a change of scenery could finally unlock his full potential. However, he has heated up as of late, with four goals, six assists and 20 shots on goal in his last 11 games. In particular, Robertson appears to have found some chemistry with rookie Easton Cowan and veteran Nicolas Roy on the third line of the Leafs. With secondary scoring vital for the team’s success down the stretch, it would be silly now to move a player that is effectively producing while playing bottom-six minutes, especially at just a value cost of $1.825 million.
Matias Maccelli
As one of the key acquisitions of the Leafs during the offseason in their trade with the Utah Mammoth, Matias Maccelli was expected to help fill some of the void left by Mitch Marner in the top six heading into the 2025-26 season. After all, having posted two 49-plus point seasons already early in his career, he had the potential to break out when surrounded by the offensive firepower of the Leafs.
But things did not go to plan as Maccelli struggled immensely to start the season with his new club. With just four goals and four assists for eight points in his first 20 games, the 25-year-old winger was performing way below expectations. As the Maple Leafs also struggled along with Maccelli, he became a potential trade chip that the team could use to recover some usable assets while he still had some value.
However, he has turned things around ever since he was healthy scratched for a significant amount of games in December. Following his return, Maccelli has registered three goals and five assists for eight points in 11 games played while effectively contributing in a top-six role on a line with John Tavares. Moreover, he has become a valuable member on the Leafs top power play unit during that stretch as well, especially during the time when team-leading scorer William Nylander was out. With Maccelli finally starting to deliver the goods, you don’t just trade them right when they are rounding into form and actively contributing to the team. In fact, he could even be the Leafs’ X-factor in the second half of the season with his sudden surprise uptick in production.
Brandon Carlo
After giving up a boatload of assets that included promising prospect Fraser Minten, along with a 2026 first-round pick and a 2025 fourth-round pick in the trade for Brandon Carlo, many had believed that Carlo was turning out to be a bust during his time with Toronto. That was because he had had some trouble finding chemistry with some of his defense partners, resulting in posting some of his worst CF% ever in his NHL career with a 42% down the stretch for the Leafs in 2024-25 and just 43% so far this season as well in 5-on-5 situations. Added to an atrocious 25-to-2 giveaway-to-takeaway ratio along with missing almost two months due to injury thus far in his 2025-26 campaign, let’s just say this wasn’t exactly what the Maple Leafs signed up for.
However, with top defensive stalwart Chris Tanev likely done for the season, Carlo now represents the best defensive defenseman that the Leafs have on their current active roster. As a result, given the team’s troubles in preventing goals earlier on in the season, the last thing that they need is lose both of their best defenders, one by injury and one by trade, while trying to still reach the Stanley Cup Playoffs. So if the Maple Leafs still have full intention to make the postseason, especially after their massive improvement in recent weeks, keeping Carlo in their defensive mix is a must, even despite his current warts. Given his proven strong play previously during his time with the Boston Bruins, he should eventually iron those issues out and rediscover his dominant form in due time with Toronto.