After missing the playoffs for the first time in a decade last year, it's hard to remember that the Toronto Maple Leafs are actually a great franchise, but they are.
This may be a hot take, but everyone should be viewing the 2025-26 season as the "Year from Hell" and something we won't see anytime soon. The team had a terrible general manager, a coach who didn't know how to create offense and everyone got hurt. Mix that in with the media that came from Mitch Marner leaving and the season was basically over before it started.
We all know that Mitch Marner made this team better, but for roughly $11M less per person, the team may have found it's new Marner in Gavin McKenna. After winning the NHL Draft Lottery, the team now has a young up-and-coming stud who can pass the puck to Auston Matthews and make him into the player we once remember.
That's a huge upgrade to the team's top-six, but overall we need to look at the history of this team with Matthews as it's leader and understand that they always make the playoffs.
In Matthews' first nine years, the team made the playoffs every year and had more than 100 points on six occassions. Year-after-year, the Leafs are a great regular season team, but last year was a fluke. This may sound crazy but it's not going to happen again next year, because this roster is just as good as it was two years ago, if not better.
Leafs will be a playoff team again next year
They've added a number-one defenseman and goaltender, who are argubably the best this team's seen in a decade and have a bottom-six which is new and unique. A player like Nick Paul is someone who can make this team so much better, yet he's not even being talked about because he's more of a third-liner.
There's zero reasons to be pessimistic about this team when it comes to making the playoffs this year. Winning a Stanley Cup is a different story, but even though the Atlantic Division is better, team's like Tampa Bay and Florida are just so much older and then someone like Detroit, Ottawa and Buffalo, who should good, are still unproven.
In the regular season, the Leafs have more than enough talent to be competitive and get back to where they were a few years ago, so every fan should be pumped about the start of the year. This could all crash and burn if injuries happen again, but if healthy, there's zero reason to think that the Leafs aren't playing spring hockey again.
Add us as a preferred source on Google