The Toronto Maple Leafs are a shell of what they once were as they were winning division titles and the entire fan base was telling themselves why they could end the season with the Stanley Cup. But now, as they're heading towards complete disaster, a head coach who earned himself a ring in his first ever season in charge, is kicking them while they're down.
Dan Byslma, most notable as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2008 to 2014 and a 2009 Stanley Cup champion, appeared on one of the shows over at The Leafs Nation and really gave his opinion on the current roster in Toronto.
"From an outsider looking in, looking at their roster compared to last year, it's just a little less daunting. I don't think it's as deep, I don't think they're as dynamic.."
— TheLeafsNation (@TLNdc) January 29, 2026
- Dan Bylsma on the #LeafsForever @thegoldenmuzzy | @Jay_D_Rosehill pic.twitter.com/doGCQP0W5z
Dan Byslma thinks the Maple Leafs just don't have it
It is, unfortunately, hard to argue with anything that Byslma said during his interview and how he somewhat respectfully gave it to the Leafs.
“From an outsider looking in, looking at their roster compared to last year, it’s just a little less daunting,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as deep, I don’t think they’re as dynamic when it comes to the lineup. That doesn’t mean they can’t win games, and that doesn’t mean they can’t be a good team, it’s just a little bit of a different path they have to establish to become a good team and win hockey games.”
Yeah, that's about right. The Leafs have a roster who can't win a game in any easy manner and will have to grind out wins like any mediocre squad can in the NHL.
“We’ve seen some times when they look like a pretty good hockey team that reeled off some games,” Bylsma continued. “So that’s their fight, that’s their battle, and they’ve got to get back into that. … Again, having put their lineup on the board last year, playing against them, it was daunting. It was a daunting team with skill and speed and offensive ability, it’s just a little bit less daunting of a team to see on the roster before the game. They’re fighting that, how to become a good team a different way.”
It was a massive switch, and it dated back before this season. As soon as Toronto hired Craig Berube to be their head coach, a change was made that they wanted to be this rough-and-tumble roster that ended up relying on their goaltender to bail them out of a whole lot of games (just as Berube's team did in St. Louis).
Bylsma, like a whole lot of people around the sport and a whole lot of Leafs fans, see where this is going and with a less daunting roster, there is not a whole lot of damage that can be done.