Without question Mitch Marner had a huge impact on the Toronto Maple Leafs whenever he took the ice during his time with the club. Whether it was his play offensively, defensively, or even on special teams, Marner was at the center of it all, helping the Maple Leafs to much winning and success.
But now, for the first time in almost a decade, Toronto will be without Marner’s services as the team will now look at life without the dynamic star winger. What should we expect of the Leafs and their performance going forward without Magic Mitch? Here, we will make five bold predictions for the Maple Leafs in the upcoming 2025-26 NHL season with Marner no longer with the organization.
1. Auston Matthews will evolve into more concrete playmaking and less goal scoring
For the past few seasons, we have grown comfortable seeing the tandem of Marner and Auston Matthews on the Leafs top line, with Marner often setting up Matthews for some beautiful goals in the process. But now without the shifty winger feeding all the pizzas, it will force Matthews to utilize more his playmaking skills to make the line work.
With Matthews Knies expected to remain on the same line as Matthews for 2025-26, unless the Leafs move a potential skilled playmaker onto their other wing flank, Matthews will need to become the driver of the line, and that all starts with being able to distribute the puck. As a result, expect Matthews’ assists total to soar. But at the same time, his goals will likely drop off to 30 or below per season, which might not be a good thing for a team that might find goal scoring harder to come by going forward.
2. Leafs power play will take a legitimate hit
For the past few seasons with the “core four” in place, the Maple Leafs had a power play that was among the best in the league. In fact, in six of the past seven seasons, it was consistently among the top 10 in the NHL, including ranking No. 1 during their 2021-22 campaign. However, a lot of that success came from running plays through Marner during the man advantage. As much as teams usually rely on a defenseman to quarterback a power play, the Leafs actually depended more on Marner than anyone else.
As a result, Marner averaged close to 28 power play points per season over an 82-game schedule during his time with Toronto. With that playmaking and output no longer available to the Leafs, don’t be surprised if Toronto’s power play will end up looking somewhat disjointed and ineffective this year as they adjust to life without the crafty winger.