The Toronto Maple Leafs' homestand slide undid much of their hot streak after the holidays. Upgrading their roster this season looks less like the answer than retooling and resetting for next year.
The Toronto Maple Leafs entered their five-game homestand looking like trade deadline buyers.
Four games into that homestand, they look like the opposite.
Toronto finished a four-game Western road swing earning five of a possible eight points, with overtime victories over the Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets. They were 9-1-3 since firing assistant coach Marc Savard and were briefly in a wild-card spot.
Rumors began to percolate that GM Brad Treliving was pondering making a move to add blueliners like Dougie Hamilton or Luke Schenn to bolster the club's post-season chances.
After losses to the Minnesota Wild, Detroit Red Wings, Vegas Golden Knights and Avalanche during their final homestand before the Olympic break, Toronto has given back much of the ground it made up over the past month and has fallen five points behind the final wild-card spot.
"We made two puck play mistakes, and it's in our net," Leafs coach Craig Berube said after a 4-1 loss to the Avalanche on Sunday afternoon. "Execution was obviously the cause of a couple goals, and gave (Colorado) 2-on-1s or odd-man rushes... We've got to fix the execution part for me and then the battle level. When you get down in the game, we got to come together as a team, and we got to fight through that."
Barring a dramatic turnaround in the five games before the league pauses for the games in Milan, any thought of Treliving giving up assets for an upgrade will likely be tabled, and serious consideration should be made for Toronto to become sellers before the March 6 NHL trade deadline.
The Leafs are almost completely bereft of draft capital in 2026 after trading their first-round pick and prospect Fraser Minten to Boston last March for defenseman Brandon Carlo. They also traded their 2027 top pick to Philadelphia, along with forward Nikita Grebenkin, for center Scott Laughton last season.
Toronto could recoup prospects and draft picks if the front office deals pending UFAs Laughton – who has eight goals in 34 games after returning from a pre-season foot injury – or left winger Bobby McMann, who is on pace to score 20 goals for the second straight season. Both forwards carry cap hits of less than $2 million this season, considering the Flyers retained half of Laughton's salary. They could attract interest from contending clubs that have limited cap space.
Forwards Matias Maccelli and Nick Robertson are both arbitration-eligible RFAs. The right-handed Carlo has another year remaining at $3.485 million. Hard-hitting Simon Benoit has one more year at $1.35 million, while Oliver Ekman-Larsson is rolling back the years at 34 and makes just $3.5 million this season and for two more years.
The current path of the Leafs is one of a team spinning its wheels with some talented core pieces. Making the playoffs is uncertain for this club, which could create an opportunity to adjust and focus on the seasons ahead rather than buying players just to try to make something of this year.
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