From Gavin McKenna slotting immediately alongside John Tavares to Easton Cowan stealing the show, here is everything that stood out from Day 1 of Maple Leafs camp.
The first on-ice session of Maple Leafs training camp did not feel like a typical September look-see. There was no split-squad scramble for first impressions. The projected NHL lines were already together from the opening day. The new No. 1 overall pick, Gavin McKenna, was already on the second line. And the new coaching staff was already treating Thursday as the start of a season, not the start of a tryout.
Here are the 10 takeaways from the opening session
1. McKenna opened camp on the second line with Tavares and Nylander
The most important piece of paper taped to the glass on Thursday morning had Gavin McKenna's name next to John Tavares and William Nylander. Hiller did not present it as a surprise. The staff had already told the three of them this is how camp would start.
"I'm surprised it didn't get out because we had kind of told those players — John and Willie and Gavin. We've told them for a while that's what it would look like,” Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller said.
“There was no single, tidy reason,”Hiller said of putting McKenna with veteran duo.
Living with Tavares mattered. Nylander's skill set mattered. The idea that an 18-year-old first-overall pick should immediately be protected by two of the smartest forwards on the roster mattered. McKenna understood the assignment and the condition attached to it.
"It feels good knowing that the staff has confidence in me and putting me with those type of players,” McKenna said. “With John, he's a workhorse. And with Willie, he's so skilled. For me, just trying to play my game and not trying to change things up and just make my plays and try to get towards the net. Pucks will find me with those type of players."
Nothing is set in stone. McKenna said that himself and Hiller warned that as well. But the biggest question of how McKenna would be utilized, has been solved for now.
2. The veterans already sound sold McKenna’s playmaking
Ask Tavares and Nylander what jumped out, and they did not reach for cliches about work ethic or "good habits." They talked about vision.
"The playmaking is elite. You can already see times when he gets out there and you think he doesn't have much room, time and space. his ability to make a play out of nothing. The puck control, the puck skills is off the charts,” Tavares said of McKenna.
Tavares went further on the part of McKenna's game that will decide whether this experiment lasts.
"Gavin's ability to make plays through traffic is elite," he said. "That's what makes him really special, the ability to make plays not just when he has time and space, but in traffic."
Nylander, who arrived later than some of his teammates to Toronto and had only seen McKenna skate a couple of times, was more measured and just as complimentary.
"Just the way he sees the ice... from what I've seen, very, very nice player. I thought we had some very good opportunities just today in practice when we were out there. We just want to keep building and don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves. Just take it day by day."
McKenna, watching Nylander from the other side of the same line, kept coming back to one word: patience. "He's so smooth out there, and it's almost like he's just completely slowing the game down. He's always going to find you in open spots, and he can bury the puck."
3. McKenna living with Tavares had part to do with putting them on the same line
Hiller did not hide the housing arrangement. He used it as part of the rationale for the line. Tavares is detailed. McKenna is 18 and living in a new city. The conversations that matter after a practice often start in a kitchen, not a video room.
"He's living with John, and John's detailed, so I think that probably helps him go home and talk about anything if he has any questions for him at the end of the day."
McKenna said the hockey talk is there, but it is not constant. There have already been backyard baseball games. Tavares' son Jace got a new boat for his birthday. The house is starting to feel like a house.
"Even after that first skate since I've been here, you just get more comfortable, moving into my house and just being around the guys, getting into a routine with them. It's all just feeling like home. So when you're out there, it's a lot easier when you're comfortable."
Tavares is treating the arrangement as a two-way street. He said the butterflies he felt Thursday morning were not that different from McKenna's. The difference is he knows those butterflies come and go.
"In a lot of ways, I honestly feel the same way today than probably he does. just the butterflies, the excitement. I've got a little bit more experience, so I understand how that kind of comes and goes. It's unreal for me, and I think for all of us, to see him embark as a great player for this franchise and for the league for a long time."
His advice for McKenna in Toronto was simple, and it sounded a lot like what Auston Matthews told the kid a day earlier: enjoy it, and be yourself.
4. The concern is not offense. It is the defensive zone.
Hiller did not pretend the new trio will be a shutdown line on Day 1. He does not pretend any line will be. Asked specifically about McKenna with Tavares and Nylander in their own end, he agreed that is the first test.
"Concern about every line in the defensive zone, to be honest with you. But when you look at that, you're going to say, okay, that looks like it might be their biggest challenge. I don't think the offensive zone will be their biggest challenge. That's going to really be on John, and really to do their job extremely well and then help Gavin along the way."
Tavares framed the mentoring the same way Hiller did: talk when it helps, stay quiet when it does not. A young player with this much talent does not need a running commentary in his ear.
"Sometimes the best things are left unsaid, especially with a young player with a lot of potential. You don't want them thinking a whole lot as well. There's no perfect way to plan for it. I think just let things happen naturally, and as a veteran player you speak up as you see fit."
Nylander's version was even shorter. Help if he asks. Let him play.
5. The other top-six bet: Matthews with Roslovic and Knies
While the McKenna line ate up the post-practice questions, Hiller's other top-six grouping was sitting in plain sight. Auston Matthews between Matthew Knies and Jack Roslovic is the other opening look, and it is not a random one.
"They were together at the (US development) program, and they've maintained a good friendship. I think Auston really likes Rosie's game. He likes the skill. He likes how he can complement him. He carries the puck through the neutral zone. A really good skater. And Auston and Kniesy have played together, so that's kind of an easy one."
Then came the sentence every Leafs coach eventually has to say in September, and Hiller said it without being prompted.
"Hey, it's day one at camp. You spend all summer doing this, and then, as you guys know, the second period of the second game, it looks different. So this is the plan for now, but nothing's set in stone."
The history is real. Matthews and Roslovic came through the U.S. National Team Development Program together. The friendship survived the years in between. If the McKenna line is the skill experiment, the Matthews line is the familiarity experiment. two players who already speak the same language, with Knies as the known quantity on the other wing.
6. The player who actually stole the morning was Easton Cowan
When Hiller was asked which player jumped out of the first session, he did not name McKenna. He named Easton Cowan.
"If I just had to say who was the player that just jumped out at you in this morning's session, to me it would be Easton Cowan. He makes some plays with the puck, but he was a puck hunter. He was everywhere. He's got tremendous skill, but where he can help his best is be a puck hound and then use that skill."
That is the role Toronto has been asking Cowan to grow into since he turned pro. The skill was never the question. The question was whether he would hunt the puck hard enough, often enough, to make a third line dangerous at both ends. Hiller liked what he saw enough to describe the line as something more than a checking unit.
"You can say, oh, that's a checking line. I see it as more than that. That's a line that should be able to play these other teams' best players, but also push them offensively, because those three players can score goals. I think Easton really can be the straw that stirs the drink from an offensive perspective and keep the other team's best line honest."
In a camp built around established NHL lines, Cowan just made sure the third line is part of the Day 1 conversation.
7. The Tanev drill was the first real snapshot of McKenna against NHL weight
The clip Hiller kept coming back to was not a rush or a goal-mouth touch. It was a corner. Chris Tanev had McKenna pinned in a tight drill. Hiller thought Tanev was going to contain him. McKenna danced off the check and threw a backhand saucer pass into space.
"That jumps out at you. I thought Tanev was going to contain him, and I thought, this would be interesting to see. He was able to elude him and make a play out of that. You're just standing there and you see them and you go, okay, well, that's a high level. That's what he's going to have to be able to do against NHL defense."
Tavares noticed the same thing from a closer distance: McKenna is not a big man, but he is firm on his stick. McKenna said that was a point of emphasis all summer, because he knew what was coming.
"That's a good compliment from John. He's got one of the best sticks I've ever seen,” McKenna said of Tavares. “That was something I tried to work on this summer. Come into the NHL, guys are going to be heavy on their sticks, and it's going to be hard to strip pucks. You got to know where to put your stick and when to move it. It's a big key to the game if you want to have the puck on your stick."
Hiller's larger point on McKenna was almost a coaching philosophy: he is not looking to over-coach him. "When I see what I'm seeing, there's no reason for me to go in there and tell him to do something. He's day by day adapting pretty naturally. Let's just see him go. I like where he's at."
8. Alfredsson in Leafs blue still registers as a shock, even inside the room
Daniel Alfredsson crossing the Battle of Ontario is going to be a story all season. It was a story again on Day 1. Hiller tried to close it in one sentence.
"The past is the past, and he was obviously a great player for Ottawa. But now he's going to be a great coach for the Maple Leafs, so I think that's all that really matters."
The players were more willing to sit with the strangeness of it. Tavares grew up in the rivalry. He called the hire different and exciting, and pointed to the value of a voice that has only recently left the dressing room.
"He's had a heck of a career. a fellow competitor. Really excited to learn from him and have him impact the group. He didn't play very long ago but hasn't played in a few years, so I think there's a real good balance of being really well connected to the players and how we feel, but also you gain just a different perspective."
Nylander, who now walks into the same building as Alfredsson and Mats Sundin every day, did not pretend he saw it coming.
"I was shocked as well. We have a mutual friend in common and he never said anything about it, so it came in completely shocked. But I was obviously very happy that it happened. You're seeing two Swedish legends every day. I haven't really thought about it, but it's pretty crazy."
9. The camp itself is a product of how much this organization has changed
Nine new NHL players. A new coaching staff. A new general manager. A first-overall pick who was not supposed to be available to this franchise 12 months ago. That is the backdrop Hiller, Tavares and Nylander kept returning to when they were asked why the starters were already bundled together on Day 1.
"It's atypical of how you would run a camp. We know that. With new coaches, nine new players, a bunch of new coaches, new managers, we just thought we don't have enough time. On-ice working out against each other and with each other is also about team bonding. not just off ice having dinners and going golfing. We just wanted to get them as tight as possible."
Tavares called it a function of the calendar. A shorter camp leaves less room to shuffle lines for the sake of giving everyone a look. Nylander said the same thing from the other direction: it is harder on the players trying to force their way onto the roster, and it is the right call anyway.
"I think it's a completely different situation with the shorter camp. It makes it harder for maybe guys that want to battle for spots to make the team. But it's good for a shorter camp."
The organizational reset still has a pulse inside the room. Nylander was at a Marlies game with Knies when the lottery balls fell Toronto's way. "It's pretty insane," he said. He called McKenna a game changer. On John Chayka, who has only been in the job since the spring, Nylander's review was the review of a player who has watched a chaotic summer from the inside: "From what I've seen, he's been very happy, and he's been doing a great job. It's been a crazy busy summer."
Even Group 2 left an impression. Hiller singled out Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Vinni Lettieri and Dakota Mermis for setting a professional tone in a camp structure that, he admitted, is not built for AHL regulars to take extra reps with the NHL group.
10. Rielly is week-to-week in hope, and the third goalie is now part of the plan
Two practical notes from Hiller will matter more in October than they did on Thursday morning.
Morgan Rielly is not on the ice yet with the main group, although he did skate with Group 3 players later in the day. Hiller would not put a date on a return from a viral condition.
"I don't know. I'm hoping next week. I'm hoping in the back end of next week, but we'll play it by ear."
The other change is in the crease. Toronto will use a third goaltender through camp and into an 84-game season, and Hiller framed it as a rest decision more than a depth decision. The league's starters are playing fewer games than they used to. The Leafs still want them fresher than they have been.
"We're learning probably more and more, in the last four or five years, how important rest is for the goalies. They're playing less games now, but even though they're playing less games, you still want them as fresh as possible. The third goalie is really based on that. You'll see the goalies getting more rest than in the past."
Under the new NHL collective bargaining agreement, every NHL team is allowed to employ an emergency backup goaltender and that player must wear No. 00. Brendan Bonello, who played just three games at the professiona level (with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL) is signed on for the 2026-27 season under EBUG provisions.
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