Toronto Maple Leafs 2025-26 Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Toronto Maple Leafs 2025-26 Season Preview | The Steve Dangle Podcast

Hey, we’ve never heard of these guys. They must be an expansion franchise. It’s the Toronto Maple Leafs. What a silly name. They didn’t even spell Leafs right. It’s Leafs. What’s that? What’s up with these people? Anyway, last year apparently, I guess they existed and they won the division. Something we’re getting used to in Toronto these days. Blue Jays and Leafs in the same year. 108 points. This is 52 wins. That’s a lot. It’s a lot of wins. That’s good for them. That’s so many wins. That is so many wins. And the Toronto Maple Leafs What do you guys think? Their over under is 108 points last year. They do lose Mitch Mner. 104.5. Chum FM. No. No. Lower. Jesse. Lower. Oh, guess what? The over on that. Yeah, just guess it. Uh, you said lower. Lower than 10. Oh, 101. 99 and a half. Wow. Wow. I am hammering the over on. Yeah, I’m hitting the over on that. I think the Atlantic That’s a big drop. It is a big drop and I think the Atlantic is wide open this year and it is Toronto’s for the take. Let’s start in goal. Obviously, we don’t know the status of Joseph Wool. So, we’re going to pretend like he is playing uh because we know it’s not an injury. Um but, you know, most teams use three or four goalies throughout the year. We expect to see Rhymer, expect to see Hill to be at very least. Anthony Sters, though, the the series against Florida really was one and lost on his injury. Yeah. And it’s not that Wool is bad. Stallers is more experienced. Well, different play styles. Um, uh, Stallers is better better at handling the puck. Um, but I mean, they’re the last team that we’re doing, so by now, you know, I have them second in the Atlantic. I I couldn’t without knowing the the status of Joseph Wool, put them first. Um, if Stallers and Wool have a pretty healthy year where they each missed very little time, yeah, I could see them winning the division again. I really could, even without Mner. But, uh, not knowing how many games Stallers can give you and not knowing when Wool is coming back. Those are two extremely good goalies. I think Rhymer on a PTO is a good idea. Hill to be I I guess we’ll see, but like he’s a as good an option as any. It’s good. It’s fine. It’s And again, I have them second. That’s very good. Uh but giving giving them the first spot is just hard. Jesse, thoughts on the goalending? I think last year when Stalers was out with his injury and Wall had to hold things together. I don’t think the situation will be too dissimilar this season. I think we got 34 games out of Stallers this year. You could probably add I don’t 25 to that for this year. Maybe 20 in these 54 games. And then if you get Wool back at some point, he’s going to fill in like 25 30 of those. And then that’s if he fills in 30, that’s the whole season. And if he fills in like 20ish, then you just need some competent goalending from Hill to be or Rhyr. I’m actually not concerned of the goalending at all because I think when Stalers is in there, he is as good as anyone in this league. He’s he led the league in safe percentage under his qualified number of safe percentage. You know, if we cut it off, he he had enough qualified starts, then he’s he led the league. And I think you’re going to you we can expect that out of him because he’s proven the last couple seasons that he can be that goalie. So, I’m going to bet that he is that goalie this year for the Leafs. The only season in his professional career where he’s played more than 40 games was 1516 in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. Then this year it’s this is your shot. This is your shot. Either take it or leave it. This is your one shot. We gave you the contract. The backup goalie is gone. This is it. And I I think he’s got the mentality and the work ethic and the ability to stay healthy to rise to the challenge. This is what the money’s for. Yep. Yep. Now I’m looking at uh I’m looking at their defense and last year this was a much changed defense. There were a lot of questions. Everybody was excited about the arrival of Tanv. I don’t know if we can put into words what an what a change that was from any Leafs defense core we’ve seen in 25 years. Like truly the best defensive defenseman I’ve ever seen them have. Maybe since like Dmitri Yusuke and then pairing him with McCabe. Fantastic. Amazing. Amazing. And now Riley, who spent a huge chunk of last year playing with Philip Meyers, it’s a full year of Brandon Carlo. And Brandon Carlo to me is like he’s everything that they tried to tell me Martin Minion could be. He is the you shall not pass. Well, he is. And and and by the way, I’m not trying to be disrespectful to Brandon Carlo. Brandon Carlo is an elite shutdown defenseman as well. And that is what’s so exciting at his capit, which is so small. Well, and because like I mean I guess they lack uh they they lack like a number one guy, but the top four is just so damn strong. Well, Jesse, doesn’t the number one guy need to be Morgan Riley again? Yes, it does. And they’ve put the pressure on him publicly and privately to get back to being what Morgan Riley can be and peak even higher than he’s ever peaked before. like there is organizational pressure from every side of it to to see Morgan Riley excel in the spots that he is given this year and that’s going to be quarterbacking PP1 and playing the majority of the minutes from the six defenseman. Everything is on this season for Morgan Riley because I think if he can’t excel this year, there’s going to be some serious questions about putting pressure on him to move off of this organization. What does success look like though points-wise, playwise? What are you guys looking for from Morgan? Uh, I think it’s a lot of team success. So, like winning the division would be huge. Um, double digit. He won a division last year and he objectively was not good. He had one of the worst seasons of his career. So, double digit goals. Uh, 50 plus points. Okay, Jesse, do you agree? I think that’s that’s a really good bar. I for me want to see him play the defensive style that he was incapable of learning very quickly last year under Craig Barup. first season on Craig Rubé could not figure out when to pinch and when to stay back and when to play hard-nosed defense and when to not. He needs to get comfy within playing under Craig Brew’s rules. And I hope this year we see that from him in fantasy like he’s pretty good pick to have a way better year on account of he just gets slotted right into Leaf’s PP1. Yeah. On account of Mner’s not there anymore. Well, and because Martner’s not there, the core four no longer really exists. Martner gone. Tvaris a severely reduced salary at 4.389. Still pretty sweet to make that kind of money to be honest with you. But John Tvarus is is worth it. It’s really just the dynamic duo in terms of salaries. Matthews Knander 13 and 11 million and then you got N on his new extension at 775. Everybody else uh outside of Tvar has a three or less in front of their name. And so what I want to talk about guys is the um the diffusion of money and skill and maybe talent throughout the roster. And what I mean by that is they got nothing from their depth last year in scoring. Nothing. How does that change this year? It’s still a little have and have not, but they’re going to I mean, Matthews would I think it would shock if he didn’t have a better goal scoring output than he did last season and he still had 33. Like he he went on a couple hot streaks there. Um, if he’s right back in the 50 plus range, that’s hilarious. And that makes up for a big chunk of Mner’s loss. Matthews had really good seasons without Mner on his line. I think I think he’ll live. and your third and fourth line, at least as we’ve seen in camp so far, are actual legitimate options to score, whereas you got next to nothing out of your bottom six. Nick Robertson had more goals than everybody else. Everybody else, it was like after the core four, it was like Bobby McMahon and then Nick Robertson, right? Like it was not there was not a lot of goal scoring beyond that. They had six guys hit 20 goals and only one other player even hit double digits and it was a guy who’s not an everyday player. Jesse, when you see it in in person at camp, who do you think from that third line is really going to stick out and I’m assuming the third line looks like this. W Joshua Michelle I’ve been pumping the tires of Dakota Joshua since training camp has started. He is such a hard-nosed player and such a big body and he’s not afraid to get physical. He loves to muck it up with everybody. But then seeing the line together, it might be W surprises everybody. Like he’s out there and he’s as big as anybody. Like it’s underrated how huge the third line is now. And it’s truly in my opinion addition by subtraction with the with Marner leaving. him leaving has allowed them to build out the rest of the forward group to have a team. You are hampered by that giant cap hit and now they can’t just replace the 100 points point blank. This is how we’re going to get the 100. It can’t be one guy that comes in and does it. No, but they’re getting not just the not the points part of it. They’re getting other styles of hockey throughout the rest of the lineup. They’re allowed to have guys like Wah and Joshua there now because they don’t have the giant cap hit taken up by Mitch Martner. If if you’re looking for the highlight on that third line, it’s it’s going to be the two of them and the way they play in front of the net on the offensive side of things and the way that guys are going to struggle to get through them in the neutral zone cuz they’re so big. Two things. Number one, plant my flag right now. Nicola first leaf goal of the season. Okay, that’s going to happen. Number two, full season of Scott Lton as your fourthline center is a joke. He was not a He’s not That’s not a fourthline center. He hasn’t played his whole career as fourthline center for the Flyers. I know Leaf fans were disappointed in his offensive output when he got here. It’s a new season. Watch out. Two things have been plaguing the Leafs for years. Depth at center and their defensive core. Brad Turing took the last took last year and remade their defense. Completely remade it. And I would say it’s one of the strengths of the team now. An underrated strength of the defense. Just a side note, they have a luxury that not many teams have because they bring they’re bringing back the full seven guys. They have a luxury, not just six. It’s not just the six, the extras, too. It’s a cheat code. These guys played an entire season together. They got another whole season together this year. And that relationship they have and just the knowing how the entire core plays from 1 through seven is a cheat code and they’ll have that advantage. No assembly required. There’s chemistry there. It doesn’t. Now, uh, Steve, you mentioned Scott Lton as a fourthline setter, right? Like I said, they remade the defense. This this year, it seems they’ve remade, uh, in the last 6 months, remade the center position, which is great because Wah and Lton, that’s they’re snarly, they’re mean. Uh, they also can score. Lton gets 30 points. Wah has had 15 goals in the past. The one guy that might make it out of camp at this point, it’s looking like, is Cowan, and he would be a fourthline right winger. So, in the past, the Toronto Maple Leafs have made a mistake many, many times. And this is pre-dubis and Shanny, so this a long time ago for a lot of you. Uh, it doesn’t feel like that long ago for me. Um, where they would bring up guys, I’m thinking like Jerry Demigo and like uh Josh Levo and guys that could but they would bounce them around and then up and down and up and down and up and down, destroy their confidence and they wouldn’t really develop properly. East Cowan played in the OHL last year. He was amazing, but this guy was playing in the OHL. It’s not the same. It’s not the same. Preseason, he’s looked good, but again, regular season is a step up. If he’s going to play that role, and if this is going to be good for him, how does that line look? What does it do? And what does, as a third question, Eastn Cowan need to do to stay? Englorious bastards. They They just got to be a big old bunch of bastards. He’s a bastard and Scott Lton’s a bastard and Steven Lorent very nice man bastard. Um that’s what they need to be like. Here’s here’s an idea of how that line has changed. Uh pretty sure the guy who was in that spot for most of the first half of last season was Ryan Reeves and who I think had two assists. Uh like unfortunately Ryan at this point in his career was not a playable option for a team with cup ambitions. Well, the Leafs like regularly, right? the Leafs with their old construction. What are you going to do with your fourth line? Is it going to be able to score? Well, no, cuz we have guys making like league minimum down there. Now, you have a guy who Lton was playing in like the Flyers middle six. You have Lorent who seemed more than capable based on last year, and you have Eastston Cowan who has, you know, maybe middle six, second line winger potential there. you’re able to score on all four lines. That what they did before with the budget that they had is let’s just bang and crash and that’s it. The fourth line can play hockey this time. And I think that’ll be I mean what a luxury what a relief for a coaching staff like it it if the Leafs were losing games. You saw last year they ran out of ideas pretty quick. Mhm. if they were behind big. Um I don’t think they’ll have that this year. How many games is a successful year at the NHL level for East Cowan, Jesse, from the organizational standpoint? I know Eastston Cowan would tell you 82, but um and what does that look like? For me, it’d be like zero. Like, so you think they should just send him down and put Cali Arc in there? You can have an entirely successful season this year if you’re Houston Cowan in my eyes by not cracking this roster. and they just they have uh they have yarn croak there or they hang on to comp and they play Robertson. I don’t need Cowan to be an NHLer this year. I think he can excel by developing on the Marlies. I guess I if you look forward to the end of the season, maybe there’s the time you bring him up and you you play him there, but in terms of starting like I get that he might be on the roster opening day and all that, but for me it’s not necessary for the development curve of him and for the success of this team this year. I’m not relying on Eastern Cowan. They might give him just a taste. Yeah, cuz Yarn Croak has had a very good camp and he was in so much pain last year, too. Like crazy amounts of pain. And now he is hopefully on the other side of that. He has a history of scoring double- digit goals. He’s a pretty decent penalty killer. Like is Cowan gonna be killing penalties for you? I I would think they’re going to have to train him to do that. And Marley’s is a better place or Exactly. Right. So if the number was zero, I wouldn’t be fussed. Yeah. Okay. It I think it’s cup of coffee, go down in the big time. Cup of coffee. Yeah. In the big time. And uh Yarncroak makes uh a fourth line of Lorent Lton. Yarncroak is Wasn’t that what they had in the playoffs? Yes. And it was really good against the Sens wasn’t very good against Florida, but it’s it’s a line they already had. Uh except it’s not a situation where two of the three are healthy and you know, it’s three out of three. Yeah, this is going to be a really really interesting season for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Gentlemen, we’ve got uh uh we got to predict where they where they go. Where does the Toronto Maple Leafs where do they finish by the end of this season? I renounce my lightning pick and they’re going to be first. No, I’m kidding. I I got to stick to it. Second. No backto-back division champs, huh? No. Okay. All right, Jesse, where do you have them? Numero Uno. I think they win the division again. I can see them doing it. I agree with well you had them in second. That’s not much of a hot take. I also uh would say I think they’re going to win the division again. And you know what I think this team does quietly I mean they’ve let many things to prove but the question that has surrounded them all year long guys has been or this all summer long is well what are they going to be without Mner? We’re about to find out and it might be a good thing too. Might be good for both. That’s your Toronto Maple Leaf season preview.

Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde and Jesse Blake preview the 2025 Toronto Maple Leafs season. Can they repeat a division champs? How will the loss of Mitch Marner affect their season? Find out all that and more here!

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