The biggest story for the Toronto Maple Leafs this season has been their special teams. The power play has shown a drastic improvement over last season, clocking in at 28.6% following Thursday night’s action.
But it’s the penalty kill that has gotten all of the attention. The Leafs have the NHL’s best penalty kill unit at 97.4%. The only blemish on the Maple Leafs' penalty kill has been one power play goal this season.
That’s it.
And it’s been the special teams that have kept the club afloat this season. That’s why the biggest question right now is: Is the Maple Leafs’ penalty kill sustainable?
The short answer is no. By the simple fact of the Law of Averages, the Leafs will give up a share of power play goals, bringing the overall rating down.
That’s why the broader question should be: Can the Maple Leafs remains the NHL’s best penalty kill?
That actually looks like a yes. The Maple Leafs have shown far more consistency under Jim Hiller this season. It’s almost as if Craig Berube’s departure was a liberation. And with the turnover in the assistant coaching staff, it looks like Toronto’s penalty kill is for real.
Maple Leafs getting much more commitment from everyone in the lineup
While coaching has a lot to do with the Maple Leafs’ success on special teams, the bottom line is that it’s been the commitment from everyone across the board that’s led to the success we’ve seen so far.
A good example of that is William Nylander.
This season, we’ve seen Nylander on the penalty kill. That’s something that we hadn’t normally seen in previous years. And it’s precisely because Nylander was on the penalty kill with Easton Cowan on Tuesday night in Columbus that the 21-year-old scored his first career shorthanded goal.
We’ve also seen other top players like Auston Matthews embrace the penalty kill role. That adds up to incumbents like Jake McCabe and Morgan Rielly doing a better job. And yes, Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz have done their bit.
That has to be the biggest difference this season. Everyone seems to have rallied around a common goal. That’s something that was evidently lost last season.
In fact, the narrative that the Maple Leafs never fully recovered from their Game 7 loss to the Florida Panthers in 2025 seems to have dissipated enough. There has been sufficient turnover in the team to pretty much eliminate that lingering feeling.
The first place where the change has become evident is on the special teams. The next step will be for that consistency to trickle down to the 5v5 side of the equation.
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