Matias Maccelli will look to make an impact in his first season in blue and white as the 24-year-old joins a new-look Leafs offence after the "Core Four" era came to an end when Mitch Marner was sent to Vegas for Nicolas Roy after signing an eight-year contract ahead of free agency. The Leafs acquired Macelli on June 30 from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for a condirional third-round pick in the 2027 NHL draft; with the potential of it becoming a sound-round pick in 2029 if the Leafs make the playoffs and Maccelli has at least 51 points.
Maccelli will look to bounce back in Toronto. A promising start to his career with the Arizona Coyotes saw Maccelli put up 112 points in 169 games played, including a career high 57 points in 82 games in 2023-24. Unfortunately for the Finish winger, as the Coyotes moved to Utah his offence took a step back as Maccelli scored just 18 points in 55 games last season and was left off of Team Finland's roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off in February.
In an early roster projection done by Matt Larkin of Daily Faceoff, Maccelli is projected to be on the outside looking in when Finland names their roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics. Team Finland named their first six players to their roster in June as Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, Jusse Saros, Miro Heiskanen and Esa Lindell will all represent Finland in Milan.
Finland drops the first 6 players on its preliminary roster for the Olympic Winter Games.🇫🇮🦁#IIHF #Olympics #NHL #NHLPA @leijonat @olympics @nhl @nhlpa pic.twitter.com/wjGE7UqyRN
— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) June 16, 2025
The Fin's have a strong crop of forwards to chose from, especially on the wing as the likes of Patrick Laine, Eetu Luostarinen, Artturi Lekonen and Teuvo Teravainen are just some of the names that Maccelli will be competing with for spots on Team Finland's roster. Maccelli will have to prove the Leafs gamble in him bouncing back to be a good one in order for him to make Team Finland's roster.
Many forwards on the Leafs roster have shown themselves capable of playing top-6 minutes and Maccelli seems poised to get the chance to prove himself next season. Matthew Knies and William Nylander are the only locks on the wing to be in the top-6 but the likes of Bobby McMann, Maxi Domi and Calle Jarnkrok have all played top-6 minutes for the Leafs in the past. Nick Robertson will be looking to take the next step in his NHL career next season and the newly acquired Dakota Joshua is another potential candidate to play in the Leafs top-6.
When training camp opens in September Maccelli will look to earn a spot in the Leafs top-6. Maccelli is a skilled playmaker with a career high of 40 assist in 2023-24 besting his 38 assist total in 2022-23. Auston Matthews and William Nylander are two of the NHL's best goal scorers, John Tavares is coming off of a 38 goal season and Matthew Knies will look to improve on his 29 goal campaign. Maccelli has a great opportunity to compliment the strong core of forwards that Toronto already has and be a meaningful contributor on a team with Stanley Cup aspirations.
A great edit, by @ashterissk, of the playmaking from new Maple Leafs forward Matias Maccelli: pic.twitter.com/bSI3KUwxvD
— Nick Barden (@nickbarden) June 30, 2025
Maccelli showed early in his career that he is capable of being a valuable offensive contributor and he represented Team Finland at the 2020 World Juniors. For Maccelli to have a chance at representing Team Finland at the Olympics, he'll need to prove that last season was an outlier and be closer to what he was when the Mammoth played in Arizona.
The opportunity is present in Toronto to return to form with the chance to prove Leafs management right in trading for him but also to Team Finland's management that the decision to leave him off the roster at the 4 Nations Face-Off should be a one off and represent Team Finland in best-on-best international hockey as the NHL returns to the Olympics for the first time since 2014.