Maple Leafs shake up defensive pairings as they search for answers

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a good-not-great start to their 2026-27 season. They are coming back from three-goal deficits while also giving up three-goal leads. It's a big mixed bag of results so far but one thing has remained consistent throughout the first five games: The blue line needs some work.

While many are clamoring for general manager John Chayka to make a trade for a top-four defenseman that can provide everything that they need -- a puckmover that is also physical and defends well, so a complete unicorn -- that hasn't come to fruition yet. So for now, head coach Jim Hiller has decided to shuffle his blue line in hopes to bring something else.

Maple Leafs reveal new-look blue line

Unveiled at practice on Friday, ahead of Saturday night's game against the Colorado Avalanche, Hiller has swapped some partners around.

Per TSN's Mark Masters, the new blue line is going to look like this:

Jake McCabe -- Darren Raddysh
Morgan Rielly -- Chris Tanev
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Troy Stecher

Previously, Hiller was looking for a less balance approach, with a focus on specific roles for a defensive pairing. McCabe and Tanev were together as some ultimate shutdown duo, while Rielly and Raddysh were paired up so that they could lean on either one to bring some offense. It has not worked so far.

The pairing of McCabe and Tanev worked as intended, but the reality that Tanev is a 36-year-old defense-first blueliner who has been blocking shots his entire life, is starting to creep in. It was a heavy workload. Rielly and Raddysh were nightmareish in the first few games but as the latter started to settle in, they looked somewhat better.

But these pairings should work so much better -- to provide more balance to the blue line.

McCabe and Raddysh is really what people had in mind as a pairing before the season started -- the former led the Leafs in ice-time last year and he joins the new shiny toy who will be playing top minutes and provide so much more offense from the blue line. McCabe can theoretically cover any defensive slip-ups Raddysh has, and maybe Raddysh can hand McCabe some easy secondary assists in the future. The Leafs are in theory, a more dangerous team with this balanced look.

And we know what Rielly and Tanev have done together in the past.

Some pretty good numbers from the longest-tenured Leaf and the elite defensive player from East York. They should be able to control a whole lot of play as Tanev cleans up anything left over from Rielly zipping up the ice looking for a scoring opportunity.

It just makes sense in our minds. Separating defensive pairs so specifically for certain roles was interesting and we were wondering if it would work, but now we know we need some sort of puckmover on the ice at all times to make the forwards (who are all playing fairly well to start the season) have even more opportunity.

The Leafs visit the Avalanche in Colorado on Saturday night and we'll be getting a first look at how this works against one of the best teams in the world. Good luck, boys!

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