5 biggest surprises from the Toronto Maple Leafs first month of the season
Which Maple Leafs caught our attention after one month into the NHL season?
With about a month of hockey into the books, the Toronto Maple Leafs have shown just moderate success so far in their 2024-25 NHL season.
After a promising start to the year with four wins in their first six games, the Toronto Maple Leafs have somehow reverted to some of their bad habits. Together with a power play that is becoming practically non-existent with each passing day, their record has now fallen to just 6-5-1.
The Maple Leafs main stars have been doing their job as usual, although some more than others. However, they wouldn’t even be where they are at this moment which isn't even very far, without their goalies.
Here, we will take a look at five of the biggest surprises thus far from the Leafs first month of the season.
5 biggest surprises from the Toronto Maple Leafs first month of the season
Matthew Knies
Following a solid rookie year in 2023-24 in which he put up 15 goals and 20 assists for 35 points in 80 games, Matthew Knies was hoping to build upon that success in his sophomore season.
So far, Knies has shocked everyone by becoming a scoring machine coming out of the gate in 2024-25. With 6 goals and 7 points in total already in just his first 12 games of the season, he is actually on pace for a whopping 41 goals on the year.
Of course playing alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner certainly helps. But no Leafs player to date has even recorded more than 25 goals when playing on the same line with the dynamic duo (although Michasel Bunting put up two of the best 5v5 seasons of the last 20 years playing with them).
As a result, Knies could be well on his way to smash that mark if he can keep this pace up the entire year. In doing so, it also makes the Leafs top line that much more lethal now with the sudden secret weapon in the scoring prowess of Knies. The only downfall is the fact that if Knies ends up having a career year, he will likely be that much tougher to re-sign down the road.
Anthony Stolarz
When the Maple Leafs signed Anthony Stolarz this past offseason, many had expected him to form a goaltending tandem with Joseph Woll heading into the 2024-25 season. After all, Stolarz has proven to be a solid goalie in the NHL, but predominantly in the role as the backup for almost the past decade.
But when Woll went on the injured reserve to start the season, Stolarz was suddenly thrusted into the starting role and has been running away with it ever since. In fact, in Stolarz’s first five games, he managed to let in only two goals or fewer in each of those games, giving the Leafs the opportunity to win practically every time he manned the crease. For the season, he sports a 4-2-1 record with a 2.45 GAA and .916 save percentage. They knew Stolarz was good, they just didn’t know he could be this good.
Max Pacioretty
When Max Pacioretty was signed to a professional tryout by the Leafs back in September, many didn’t have high expectations of the 17-year NHL veteran. After all, he was coming off two injury-filled seasons in which he was limited to just 7 goals and 19 assists for 26 points in just 52 games played. At aged 35, many were wondering how much he could actually recover from his major injuries and whether he could regain any of his previous dominant form.
Pacioretty didn't silence his naysayers when he made the team out of camp, because they all expected the Leafs to gift him a spot. That, however, hasn't been the case, as Pacioretty has been mostly very effective.
Now, with nine games under his belt in the 2024-25 NHL season, he has continued to be a surprise contributor whenever he found himself in the Leafs lineup. To date, Pacioretty has recorded 2 goals, 4 assists for 6 points along with 15 shots on goal while averaging just around 12 minutes of ice time per night. Together with a whopping CF% of 58% in 5-on-5 situations, he is definitely tilting the ice in the Leafs favour whenever he plays.
Only problem with Pacioretty is that he's 35 and seems to follow up every two or three great games with a complete dud.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Following two consecutive down seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, Oliver Ekman-Larsson and his career appeared to be on the decline as he was ultimately bought out by the Canucks following the 2022-23 season. Consequently, Ekman-Larsson landed with the Florida Panthers last season where he resurrected his career somewhat by playing sheltered minutes on a defensively-strong Panthers team. In the end, he played a key role in helping the Panthers capture the Stanley Cup.
This summer, the Leafs signed Ekman-Larsson to a huge (some would say ill-advised and ridiculous) four-year deal. So far in his first month with the Leafs, Ekman-Larsson has performed slightly beyond expectations. He is currently tied with Morgan Rielly for most points by a Leafs defenseman with six, along with being confidently utilized in all situations, whether it be on the power play, penalty kill or even strength.
OEL had a strong start to the year, but has fallen back to earth recently. Overall, he has been a huge surprise though because not much was expected.
Timothy Liljegren
Finally, we have the surprising inclusion of the now former Maple Leafs defenseman Timothy Liljegren on this list. It wasn’t for the fact that he made significant contributions in helping the team win this past month. The surprise element came from the fact that the Leafs actually traded him away without even giving him a chance to really play this year.
After all, the Leafs had spent many years on the careful growth and development of the former first-round pick. More importantly, Liljegren has actually looked good in the past couple of seasons after being mentored by regular partner Mark Giordano along the way. In his past three years, Liljegren has put up 14 goals, 50 assists for 64 points in total. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)
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Still at 25 years old, his prime years has yet to come. But because of the cap crunch, along with the falling out of favour with new head coach Craig Berube, Liljegren became the unexpected first casualty of the Leafs season. Sadly, this surprise could come back to haunt Toronto big time down the road.