As the calendar flips to 2026, the Toronto Maple Leafs must focus on three resolutions to improve their fate next year.
The past 365 days for the Toronto Maple Leafs has been a whirlwind. The beginning of the year was fantastic as the team won the Atlantic Division and made it to the second round, before crashing and burning in horrible fashion against the Florida Panthers. There was a lot of optimism during the playoffs but unfortunately the team played two of their worst games in team history during Game 5 and Game 7, which has essentially crept into the 2025-26 season.
The Leafs let Mitch Marner walk to Vegas and as much as we all thought his absence would hurt the team slightly, it wasn't supposed to be this bad. Toronto has gone from first to last in the division with zero signs of hope as this season looks lost despite still having half of the season remaining.
Like a lot of us, maybe the team needs a new year to spark change, but the only way things actually vary is if these three resolutions become true.
Health
With health comes happiness and this team desperately needs to get healthy. From Auston Matthews' struggles, Anthony Stolarz' bizzare dissaperance and Chris Tanev's absence, the Leafs need a healthy roster if they want to get back to their regular season winning ways.
That's harder than it sounds but if this team was back to full health, they would definitely be a playoff team instead of one of the worst teams in the Eastern Conference.
New management
When Keith Pelley took over, he let Brendan Shanahan go and gave Brad Treliving more responsibility which seems like a terrible decision. The Leafs have had poor management throughout the course of history, but we may be getting into John Ferguson Jr. territory with Treliving right now.
He's emptied the cuppboard with draft picks and prospects for fourth-line players while thinking the signings of Matias Macceli, Max Domi and Dakota Joshua to big deals would be the perfect replacement for Mitch Marner. This team is poorly constructed and not set up for success, so it's not shocking that they're in the situation they currently are, so Treliving needs to get fired in 2026.
Identity change
The Leafs need to take one step back to take two steps forward and it starts with an indentity change. That could obviously mean a new general manager, or it could mean that current GM Brad Treliving trades one of Matthews, Nylander, Knies or Rielly and/or Keith Pelley hires a real president to oversee hockey operations.
Although we didn't see much of Brendan Shanahan, he was the architect of this team and he helped bring the Leafs from last place to a playoff team every year, so the team needs another person like that to take over. Treliving indicated that they wanted to be a "tougher team to play against" which is why he hired Craig Berube and signed players like Joshua and Tanev, but when you watch this team, they look like one of the softest in the NHL still, so that indentity needs to change.
If you're going to continue with Matthews and Nylander, then they need to be a fast and exciting team to play against, but if they want to move more towards forechecking and defense, then they better trade those superstars and retool. Either way, after 10 years, it feels like the Leafs need a complete reset and 2026 could be the year for major change.