The 2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs season is coming fast but before the games truly matter, we at Editor In Leaf are taking a look at one player everyday until the puck is dropped, and what we could expect from them this time around.
Calle Jarnkrok hasn't had the easiest of time recently. After battling back from multiple injuries including a sports hernia and then aggrevating something in his groin to keep him out for the majority of the 2024-25 season, the 33-year-old forward has to scratch and claw just to stay on his current team.
What did we see from Jarnkrok last season?
Due to recovering from some major injuries, Jarnkrok played a total of 19 games last season, where he managed to score one goal and seven points. But, while the total numbers were significantly impacted, Jarnkrok was still his familiar self.
He was still able to score his one single goal on a total of nine shots, making his shooting percentage 11.1 on his "season" which is almost right in line with his career number of 12.3 shooting percentage. He played slightly fewer minutes than normal but since he was stapled to the second half of the lineup and played no more than 16 minutes and three seconds in a game, and played as little as eight minutes and 23 seconds. The veteran forward was utilized in the way that he should and it wasn't to bring an overwhelming amount of offense -- it was just to be a solid contributor down on the bottom two forward lines and he did that even after recovery.
There's not much to go off of, but Jarnkrok was perfectly fine in every sense of the phrase. Now, he might not even get an opportunity to be that.
What should we expect from Jarnkrok this season?
It's a little rough to think about, after Jarnkrok took all that time to work his way back up to being healthy enough to play and then back up to being in game shape, but his position on the Leafs is in jeopardy. After not having to pay Mitch Marner tens of millions of dollars, the Leafs invested that money into solidifying their forward depth.
Bringing in Dakota Joshua, Nicolas Roy, and Matias Maccelli all via various trades now has filled just about every position up front that the Leafs had available for the taking and forwards like Jarnkrok (and David Kampf and Nick Robertson) could be pushed out because of it.
With that being said, the expectation for Jarnkrok is just to continue being exactly the same, if he remains part of the Leafs and in their lineup going forward. Just playing depth minutes but also able to contribute offensively enough where he is sort of the scoring threat -- especially if he is with Steven Lorentz and Scott Laughton, Jarnkrok would be the offensive guy of the bunch.
Is there anything specific that we could expect? Not really. Maybe just for Jarnkrok to be able to come in even if he is the 13th forward to start, and have the inconsistency of his performances not affect his game.