The offseason departure of top two-way forward Mitch Marner to the Vegas Golden Knights raised questions about its effect on the Toronto Maple Leafs. Replacing his team-leading 102 points in 2024-25, as well as his defensive contributions, would be difficult.
Still, the Leafs had a solid goalie tandem with Anthony Stolarz and Joseph Woll, a solid veteran defense featuring Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Brandon Carlo, and Chris Tanev, and superstar forwards Auston Matthews, William Nylander and John Tavares.
The Maple Leafs have qualified for the playoffs in each of the last nine seasons, including a first-place finish in the Atlantic Division in 2024-25. At the quarter mark of this season, they find themselves near the bottom of the division with 21 points in 22 games.
Stolarz has been inconsistent between the pipes before being sidelined by an injury, looking nothing like the confident netminder with a league-leading save percentage (.926) in 2024-25. Woll only recently returned to the lineup after taking a leave of absence before the season began.
Meanwhile, the defense corps is struggling. Rielly continues his troubling decline that began last season, while Tanev and Carlo are out with injuries. The result is a goals-against per game that was the ninth-best last season (2.79) has ballooned to a league-worst 3.73.
The good news is the Leafs’ 3.36 goals per game average is the league’s fifth-highest. The bad news is that the high-scoring Matthews has missed five games and counting with a lower-body injury.
Marner’s absence isn’t the only reason behind the Leafs’ disappointing play thus far, but perhaps they wouldn’t be suffering as much if he were still in their lineup. He always put up points even when Matthews was sidelined.
Stats and standings (as of Nov. 23, 2025) via NHL.com.
