The 2025–26 season has been an outright disaster for the Toronto Maple Leafs, recently leading to the firing of general manager Brad Treliving.
Within 24 hours of Treliving’s dismissal, it was made clear that the Maple Leafs have no plans of “tanking”—neither to close out this season nor in the near future. Toronto isn’t waving the white flag on the Auston Matthews era.
MLSE CEO and President Keith Pelley disagrees with the notion that the Maple Leafs should tank.
“We will not do anything to try to get that [first-round pick]. And if fans are angry with that, then I respect that. But we will not tank.”
— Nick Barden (@nickbarden) March 31, 2026
It’s understandable to want to be level-headed after a down season. After all, the Maple Leafs would be tied for a playoff spot if they were in the Western Conference. But when you take a step back, the most logical path forward for the Blue and White is a teardown rebuild.
The Big Question: How Can the Maple Leafs Build a Cup Winner?
One thing was made obvious this season: as constructed, the Maple Leafs are not good enough to win a Stanley Cup. While a core of Matthew Knies, Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares can definitely compete when healthy, it falls short of the true juggernauts across the league. So, some big roster changes need to be made this summer.
In order to improve the roster, we have to establish ways that can be done. For teams that fancy themselves as competitive, the most traditional method is trading young players and draft picks for stars in their prime. But that’s where problems arise for Toronto.
Back in January, prospect expert Corey Pronman ranked his 137 best NHL-affiliated players who are under the age of 23. Only one Maple Leaf made the list: Easton Cowan at No. 88. The 20-year-old winger fell into the “middle-of-the-lineup player” tier (from ‘Ranking the best NHL players and prospects under 23: Macklin Celebrini, Connor Bedard remain at the top,’ The Athletic – Jan. 13, 2026).
Does Pronman speak for the other 31 teams? No, he does not. Still, it’s an objective truth that the Maple Leafs are lacking in the prospect department. Cowan and Ben Danford are nice pieces, but far from enough to land a game-changer—or potentially just an average top-sixer—on the open market.
Instead, let’s pivot to draft picks. Here, though, the Maple Leafs are arguably in an even worse predicament. With their 2026 first-rounder belonging to the Boston Bruins (top-five protected) and their 2027 first-rounder belonging to the Philadelphia Flyers (top-10 protected), the team doesn’t have many high-value picks to offer up.
All that’s really left is a continuously diminishing unrestricted free agent (UFA) pool and flipping current non-core veterans for under-the-radar talent.
The free agency point is self-explanatory: fill the gaps in the top-six forward corps and top-six defensive corps with UFAs. Again, though, that’ll be hard to rely on with how many guys are re-signing.
The more intriguing option here is trading veterans like Brandon Carlo and Oliver Ekman-Larsson for futures—say, two firsts—then flipping those futures for an undervalued star. A recent example that comes to mind is the Flyers’ acquisition of Trevor Zegras for Ryan Poehling, a 2025 second-round pick, and a 2026 fourth-round pick. With two firsts, Toronto could replicate this sort of move twice.
Ultimately, though, that wouldn’t be enough. Could the Maple Leafs get wins in all of these categories to build a championship team? Sure, it’s not impossible. However, basically everything is working against them. The prospect pool is lacking, the draft-pick cupboard is concerning, the UFA market is dwindling, and there aren’t many trade pieces on the roster.
Even if the Maple Leafs manage to create a real contender out of thin air this summer, they need their health woes to suddenly vanish and their goaltending to return to elite form. All of this is to say that building a Cup contender in the Matthews era seems unrealistic.
Why the Maple Leafs Should Rip the Band-Aid Off Now
You may disagree with it, but the odds of the Maple Leafs bringing the Stanley Cup home in this era are extremely low at best. Not even Florida Panthers general manager Bill Zito was working with this little.
At the start of next season, Matthews will be 29, Nylander 30, and Tavares 36. Aside from Knies, the core players are either at the tail end of their prime or out of it entirely. Regarding a teardown rebuild, now is a better time than ever to devastate other teams of their young assets by dangling what’s left of the “Core Four,” accumulate top prospects via the draft for the next few seasons, and embrace a new era.
That may sound drastic. However, I want to point out my NHL fandom here (it is not Toronto) because it ties into this post. I have been following the Flyers for about a decade and a half at this point, and when I saw the Maple Leafs’ moves in the 2025 offseason, I got flashbacks to the mid-2010s era Flyers. I wrote about it below:
Related: Maple Leafs’ Offseason Has Been a Nightmare
During that time period, the Flyers had an aging core with no real shot at a Cup. Nowadays, everyone knows that Philadelphia should’ve blown everything up when they had the chance. It would have saved years of everyone’s time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t remotely in consideration.
Ten years later, I see the same team but in different colours. Are the Maple Leafs good enough to make the playoffs and potentially win a round if things go right? Yes. But are they capable of much more than that? No, I don’t really think so.
Tear it down now, because if you do, you’ll be thankful you ripped the band-aid off. This is not a process that you want to delay.
At least during this upcoming summer, the Maple Leafs are almost certainly not going to tear it down. They probably should, though. I’ve seen this movie before, and it’s not one that has a happy ending. Rip off the band-aid before things get worse—it’s the best path forward.
