The Maple Leafs are shaking up their struggling power play by replacing Morgan Rielly with Oliver Ekman-Larsson on the top unit.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have struggled all season to get their power play going, and despite some minor tweaks, it looks like the team is now changing the main puck distributor up top.
During Toronto’s practice on Tuesday, the Leafs flipped defensemen Morgan Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is now quarterbacking the main unit that features forwards Auston Matthews, John Tavares, William Nylander, and Matthew Knies, while Morgan Rielly has moved to the second unit to skate with Mattias Machalli, Nick Robertson, Max Domi, and Nicolas Roy. Roy debuted as the net-front PP2 option during Toronto’s 4-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday.
“It's just a different look. He's run power plays in the past on different teams. We're just trying to get something that works here—we're trying to get some stability,” Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube said of Ekman-Larsson. “And we did it last year, too, for a bit, trying to get it to work, and eventually we did. We're going to keep banging away at it to get it to work”.
Through games played on Nov. 3, 2025 this season, Toronto’s power play currently ranks tied for 30th out of 32 teams with an efficiency rate of 12.1 percent. The Leafs’ underlying numbers on the power play tell a bit of a different story, as their expected goals and possession should have them ranked in the middle of the pack.
Either way, the results have been poor, and the Leafs need to try something different. Changing up the quarterback is a significant move, especially with Rielly moving down, as much of the season's talk has centered on trying to get Toronto’s longest-tenured player going offensively.
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Ekman-Larsson was inserted on the top power play midway through their first man advantage on Saturday, replacing Morgan Rielly.
Ekman-Larsson quarterbacked Toronto’s power play for a brief period last year before the Leafs ultimately moved to a five-forward setup that featured the now-departed Mitch Marner playing up top.
“O's got a great read for the game. You know, handles the puck so, so, so well, very deceptive,” Tavares said of Ekman-Larsson. “That sifter of his is as good as anyone's in the league. His ability to deliver pucks through lanes. And the timing of it all is really, really good. So (we will) try to maximize that”.
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Although they didn't score, Toronto's top power-play unit looked a lot better once they mixed up the personnel.
During training camp, Ekman-Larsson briefly talked about wanting to be a more effective contributor on the power play. The promotion to the top spot could certainly help him achieve that goal.
But no matter what, the Leafs feel it’s just a matter of time before those percentages regress positively. For their sake, it had better, or they will have a difficult time moving up in the standings.
“I thought we've executed well, where the puck just hasn't gone in, which is really all that matters,” Rielly said. “We're looking to build on some good things and get more opportunities at the net, and, you know, hopefully we'll start scoring”.
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