After a 5-1-1 start to the new year, the Toronto Maple Leafs have lost four games in a row.
Within that losing streak, there have been a number of off-ice distractions that have summed up the 2025-26 season.
Auston Matthews is telling the media that it's "fun" to lose to Mitch Marner. William Nylander is flipping off the TV camera's. Meanwhile, head coach Craig Berube got into a gym accident that required 50 stiches to his face. Can we all just agree that this season might be cooked?
The Leafs four losses have all came against playoff opponents, but that's no excuse. With five games in seven days against Buffalo, Seattle Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton before the Olympic break, we'll know whether or not the team has a chance at a playoff spot in one week.
Toronto is only five points out of a playoff spot right now, but there are unfortunately seven teams within two points of them. Even if they go on a hot-streak, they'll need a ton of help from their opponents to make the post-season.
This season is a lot different than previous regular seasons where the team would have a comfortable playoff spot in January and could coast their way to April. Every game from now until the end of the campaign will feel like a playoff game and in typical Leafs fashion, they have been losing every big game they've needed to win lately.
If the Leafs go 5-0 in their next five games before the break, they'll sit at 67 points, which still won't gurantee them a playoff spot. However, if they do the opposite and go 0-5, they'll end up in worst or second last place in the Eastern Conference right beside the New York Rangers, so these next games are critical.
It may benefit the organization to miss the playoffs this year
The Leafs traded away their first-round pick to the Boston Bruins this year, but it's top-five protected. As such, if the team falls off a cliff for the rest of the year, it's still possible they can draft a future superstar. However, if the regular season continues how it is now, they'll narrowly miss the playoffs and will most likely end up gifting the Bruins the No. 12 overall pick, which is worst case scenario.
We all know what happens when the Leafs gift the Bruins draft picks (Tyler Seguin, Dougie Hamilton), so it would be another brutal loss to see their rival secure what could have been a future Leafs star.
Toronto is an OK team but they are not well-rounded enough to win a Stanley Cup, or even win a playoff round at this point, so it's time to retool or rebuild. Brad Treliving and Craig Berube wouldn't agree to this because they'll be fired if it happens, but it may be in the organization's best interest to not only miss the playoffs, but to start trading off assets when they return from the Olympic break.
This organization needs a reset and it starts with a high-end draft pick, so the team needs to do everything they can to make sure they get to draft their top-five protected pick this year. It's going to be a difficult decision to make but these last four games should give MLSE zero confidence that this a contender.