The Toronto Maple Leafs have spent all season focusing on winning and making the necessary adjustments along the way to ensure that they could have as much success as possible. In doing so, they have put themselves in a very good position heading into the final two weeks of the 2024-25 NHL season.
Currently, the Toronto Maple Leafs sit atop of the Atlantic Division with a sparkling 47-25-4 record and 98 points and having already clinched a playoff spot during the past week. With six games remaining on their schedule, they are four points clear of the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning as they aim to capture the division title as well to claim home-ice advantage during the divisional series.
As the teams just below the Maple Leafs jostle for the final positions in the division, it has created an uncertainty in terms of who Toronto could face during the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With the bulk of the playoff bubble teams struggling in the Metropolitan Division, it appears as though the Leafs will be headed towards a confrontation within their own division to start things off.
If that indeed comes to fruition, barring any miracles, who should the Maple Leafs want in the first round? Here, we will take a look at the four most-likely opponents that Toronto will face to start their quest for the Stanley Cup.
Which Opponent do the Toronto Maple Leafs Want in the First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
Tampa Bay Lightning
It doesn’t really matter what year it may be, but anytime you get to face the Lightning in a playoff round, you know that you will be facing a team that will be giving their maximum effort for the full sixty minutes with Jon Cooper at the helm.
They may no longer have long-time Leafs nemesis Steven Stamkos on their roster, but the emergence of elite workhorses Brandon Hagel, Anthony Cirelli and Nick Paul in recent years to accompany superstars Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point has kept Tampa Bay a fearful force to be reckoned with. Together, they have helped the Lightning become the second-highest scoring team in the league this season as of this moment.
Despite all of that, it remains a fact that the Lightning remain the only team that the Maple Leafs have defeated in a first-round matchup over the past two decades. So if there’s any team that Toronto has the confidence in beating no matter how daunting the task may be, it should come against the team they have had their only success against in the playoffs.
Especially after the fact that they have won all three matchups to date this season against the Lightning by a combined score of 15-8. Therefore, as crazy as it may sounds, having Tampa Bay as the Leafs first round opponent could actually be a good thing.