The Toronto Maple Leafs have certainly underwhelmed by playing like a .500 team so far in their 2026-27 NHL campaign. Following their embarrassing 4-0 shutout loss at the hands of the New Jersey Devils on Sunday, the Maple Leafs have fallen under .500 with a 8-9-2 record for 18 points to remain just one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings for the Atlantic Division basement.
Some of the Leafs biggest stars such as Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and to some extent John Tavares have been doing their part. But for some others, they haven’t been meeting the expectations tha we’re expected of them. Here, we will take a look at the 2 biggest disappointments in the Maple Leafs season to date.
Darren Raddysh has not shown enough
Signed to a massive eight-year, $68 million contract following a sign-and-trade deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Leafs had high expectations for defenseman Darren Raddysh heading into the 2026-27 NHL season. Of course, Toronto isn’t expecting Raddysh to suddenly become the next Cale Makar or Quinn Hughes. But coming off a career year in 2025-26 with the Lightning in which he potted 22 goals and registered 70 points, the Maple Leafs believed that his booming shot would give the team an added offensive element from the blueline for opponents to worry about.
So far this season, Raddysh has put up the points, with 10 in 19 games. However, he is on pace for ZERO goals as he has yet to score for Toronto this year. Not only that, Raddysh recently made headlines for the wrong reasons as an ill-timed penalty cost the Leafs the game against the Utah Mammoth. On top of that, he has posted a CF% of 47.7% in 5-on-5 situations while registering a giveaway to takeaway ratio of over 5:1. With all respect to Morgan Rielly, the Maple Leafs didn’t invest in Raddysh to get another distributor and some defensive liability like Rielly, especially not for $8.5 million AAV per season for almost the next decade. So hopefully will start resembling more of his strong play that he demonstrated with Tampa Bay last season soon or else the lengthy contract could go bad really quickly.
Sergei Bobrovsky is already showing cracks
Thought to be the biggest big name splash made by Leafs GM John Chayka this past offseason, the early returns in signing free agent star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky hasn’t looked good thus far to say the least. Despite being handed the starter’s role in net for the Maple Leafs, Bobrovsky has looked anything but his usual star form, posting a dismal 3-7-2 record with a 3.34 GAA and .886 save percentage in 12 games for Toronto. With those numbers, it is starting to make last season’s regression with the Florida Panthers more a reality than an outlier. More worrisome is the fact that the 38-year-old veteran hasn’t really come up with the big saves in the biggest moments when the Leafs really needed it to help steal a win or two for the Buds.
In fact, the only game this season in which Bobrovsky may have single-handedly helped Toronto to victory was the 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks back on October 19. Other than that, he has given up three or more goals in practically every game this season, which can be a recipe for disaster. With Anthony Stolarz performing more consistently so far in 2026-27, Bobrovsky could see his time reduced in net over the course of the coming weeks. But for someone that the Maple Leafs invested a whopping $21 million for the next three years, that is exactly not what Toronto had envisioned at all in their pursuit to return to contending status.
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