As the Toronto Maple Leafs roster takes shape following their active offseason, one area that will be under the microscope heading into the upcoming year will be whether their defense can bounce back from a horrid 2025-26 campaign. After all, the Maple Leafs gave up a whopping 295 goals last season, which put them second last in the entire league. Not only that, their 32.4 shots yielded per game put them dead last in the NHL in that category as well.
Therefore, it is vital that the Leafs have the perfect roster setup for their defense that gives them the best chances at winning every night. As a result, we will take a look at the ideal Maple Leafs defenseman pairings for the 2026-27 season.
Constructing the ideal Maple Leafs defenseman pairings for the 2026-27 season
Jake McCabe – Chris Tanev
This was the top shutdown pairing for Toronto during the 2024-25 season and should have been last year as well. However, Chris Tanev would run into massive injury woes that limited him to just 11 games in total with the Leafs. Consequently, Jake McCabe was forced to partner with others such as Troy Stecher, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Simon Benoit, Brandon Carlo and even a little bit with Morgan Rielly, but none of them was able to produce the same effectiveness as the McCabe-Tanev combo. In 5-on-5 situations, with Tanev, McCabe at least put up a respectable 48% CF% together, but with the others his CF% mark never rose above 46%.
With Tanev back for the 2026-27 season, the Maple Leafs will hope to reform their elite shutdown pair to face the top lines of opposing teams. However, how effective they will be once again will depend on if Tanev still has any ill-effects lingering from all of his injuries from the past year. Nevertheless, McCabe will likely need to take upon a bigger role in the pair given his age and health to help preserve Tanev to be in the best shape possible going forward.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson – Darren Raddysh
Most probably have pegged the newly-acquired Darren Raddysh to be with Rielly as a defensive pairing for the Maple Leafs heading into next season. However, Ekman-Larsson would actually be the better option to be with Raddysh. Putting Rielly and Raddysh together could potentially lead to defensive nightmares in the Leafs zone as both are mainly puck-moving offensive defensemen that don’t really have a high-physical aspect to their game.
With Ekman-Larsson, he may not be the top defensive defender on the team. But he provides the veteran leadership and subtle physical presence to help complement Raddysh more to enable the latter to run more freely to be more effective in the long run. After all, the 35-year-old veteran was perhaps the Maple Leafs best overall defenseman last season, so Raddysh could really polish up and take off with his game even more if partnered with such reliability.
Morgan Rielly – Emil Andrae/Troy Stecher
For Rielly, we have witnessed over the years that he is actually most effective when paired with a defensive partner. Ron Hainsey would quickly come to mind as Rielly would have his best offensive season of his career back in 2018-19 season with the incumbent veteran on his side. As a result, he should be partnered with either newcomer Emil Andrae, or the veteran Stecher, who are both known more for their defensive contributions, for the upcoming year.
With Andrae, the 32-year-old veteran can help be the prime mentor for the aspiring young 24-year-old in helping to develop his vision and offensive play on the ice. At the same time, Andrae’s strong abilities with his active stick and gap control would help cover up for any deficiencies in Rielly’s defensive game. As for Stecher, it is actually a no-brainer to pair him with the 32-year-old defender as last season in their playing time together on the ice 5-on-5, Rielly put up his best CF% and expected goals at 54%. So any chance for a revitalized Rielly to materialize and help the Leafs turn things around, Stecher or Andrae could play a huge role in making it happen.
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