The Toronto Maple Leafs head into the 2025-26 NHL season knowing a few things.
They know captain and superstar center Auston Matthews will lead the team in scoring. They know coach Craig Berube will preach discipline and attention to defense. They know the home fans in the platinum section of Scotiabank Arena won’t be back in their seats until well into the second and third periods.
But there are other players who you have to think need to take a step up for the Maple Leafs this coming year. To that end, three such players jump to mind.
Matthew Knies, LW
We’re not suggesting Knies must make some Herculean jump in his overall game after posting a career-best 29 goals and 58 points last season.
But the absence of former teammate Mitch Marner will cast a long shadow, and one of the people that shadow will cover is every high-end Leafs player, Knies included.
If Knies steps up and puts together, say, 35 goals and 65 points, that will take some of the pressure off the rest of the Leafs' lineup. Instead of the top line being center-right in the Matthews and Marner Era, the new era will be center-left with Matthews and Knies.
People will focus on Toronto’s first-line right winger being in a high-pressure, high-profile position, and rightfully so. But if Knies can reassure Leafs coaching and management he can play in all situations and still have more room to grow as the 22-year-old that he is, Knies’ star has the potential to shine as brightly as just about anyone’s on the team.
Justifying his new salary of $7.75 million would be exceedingly easy if he could build on being Toronto’s top power forward with a set of new career highs. Any significant step forward for Knies will cement his status as one of the best youngsters in the game, and he looks up to the challenge.
Matias Maccelli, RW
If you’d told Maccelli at this time last year he was one year away from starting on the Leafs’ top line alongside Matthews and Knies, he probably would be skeptical about your skills as a psychic.
But here we are. After Maccelli was acquired from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for a third-round draft pick this summer, he should get a look in the Leafs’ first-line right winger spot.
The 24-year-old had 17 goals and 57 points in 2023-24, and his future with Utah seemed assured. But those numbers fell to eight goals and 18 points in 55 games last season – and at a salary of $3.425 million, Maccelli simply wasn’t pulling his weight.
So the trade was a clear salary dump from Utah’s perspective, and from the Maple Leafs’ perspective, it was a gamble that Maccelli could put up 30 to 35 assists and 40 to 50 points to take some of the sting out of Marner’s departure.
Maccelli doesn’t have to play like the second coming of Adam Oates as a puck-distributor, but Matthews has a way of making his linemates shine, and that’s what the Leafs could be pinning their Maccelli-related hopes on. If the Finn takes a significant step up, the trade for him will be a steal for the Leafs.
Nick Robertson, LW
Yes, it’s time once again to guess where Robertson plays next year.
After narrowly avoiding arbitration with a one-year contract worth $1.825 million, Robertson is back for one more kick at the can in Toronto this year. Despite averaging 12 minutes in ice time last season, Leafs brass clearly wants to give Robertson every possibility to prove he’s a high-impact NHLer.
But make no mistake – Robertson’s particular brand of skill will be under the microscope from the get-go.
Robertson generated career highs in goals (15) and games played (69) last year, but he played in only three of Toronto’s playoff games, averaging just 9:59.
Robertson must be a top-six player to have a linemate who can make him an effective goal-scorer, but this roster is packed. Thus, it feels like an all-or-nothing type of year for Robertson, who may be wearing a new team’s jersey by the NHL trade deadline – or well before it.
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