{"id":498174,"date":"2026-03-11T13:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/498174\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T13:37:15","slug":"bobby-mcmann-weighs-in-on-playing-for-toronto-maple-leafs-after-trade-to-seattle-kraken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/498174\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby McMann weighs in on playing for Toronto Maple Leafs after trade to Seattle Kraken"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bobby McMann<\/a>\u2019s tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> came to an end Friday as he was traded to the Seattle Kraken<\/a> just before the trade deadline.<\/p>\n

McMann, a pending unrestricted free agent, was moved for second- and fourth-round picks after playing the first 200 games of his NHL career with the Maple Leafs.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old winger admitted to Joshua Kloke of The Athletic<\/a> that Toronto can be a difficult market to play in, with the noise only amplified when the team struggles, such as they have this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, it can be. When things aren\u2019t going well, it\u2019s that much harder to play there, I think,\u201d McMann told Kloke. \u201cWe\u2019re all human, and I think all NHL players at times get put on a pedestal. Everybody lets things get to them to a certain extent, some more than others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen things aren\u2019t going well, a lot of us are so critical of ourselves already that then when you start hearing it from things like media, people around town, the people that you aren\u2019t as connected to, oftentimes you try and brush it off. But it\u2019s hard because you\u2019re human, and eventually it gets to you and it starts to wear on you. And you also understand the magnitude of the Leafs in that city and how important hockey is there. So I think a lot of the guys who were really big competitors wear that on their shoulders and wear the weight of the city on their shoulders a lot because of how important the sport is there.\u201d<\/p>\n

One-on-one with Bobby McMann:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Why Maple Leafs contract extension talks stopped
\u2022 How the Leafs became \u201cdisconnected\u201d and the season went wrong
\u2022 Inside emotional goodbyes
\u2022 Is playing in Toronto difficult?https:\/\/t.co\/eU4Si0aQZk<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) March 11, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs, who moved McMann, Scott Laughton<\/a> and Nicolas Roy<\/a>, ahead of the deadline are on track to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016. The team struggled early in the season, opening with a 5-5-1 record in October and sitting at 11-11-3 by the end of November. The tide seemed to turn in December as the Maple Leafs rose to 18-15-6 and then entered the Olympic break in February at 27-21-9, six points out of a playoff spot. <\/p>\n

Three losses out of the gate after the Olympics sealed Toronto\u2019s fate as sellers, with their moves looking further justified with team\u2019s winless skid now at eight games. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of key players out of games early in the season,\u201d McMann said of where things went wrong for the Maple Leafs. \u201cAnd then when you go through those games, you\u2019re not winning as much and then you get those players back and it\u2019s like, \u2018OK, we should be good.\u2019 But sometimes, the team isn\u2019t clicking where you want it to be,\u201d he said. \u201cThen you start trying to change things up a little bit. I think that\u2019s where you start to run into problems, instead of trusting the system.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c…Every team in this league is so exceptionally good that when you\u2019re not working as a cohesive unit all the time and you\u2019re disconnected, things can start to go south pretty quickly,\u201d he added. \u201cI think guys were maybe overthinking things a little bit too much, thinking about \u2018OK, how do we get this back?\u2019 rather than trusting the process of the game plan in place at start of the year. Let\u2019s stick with what our systems and plan we\u2019ve been working at for quite a long time. We\u2019ve been working with these lines and combinations we had, to go through these situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

McMann is awaiting his work visa to make his Kraken debut. He has 19 goals and 32 points in 60 games this season, set to top his career-best 20 goals and 34 points in 74 games last year.<\/p>\n

Seattle is currently sitting in the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference, equal in points with the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>, who are outside the playoff picture and just two points ahead of both the San Jose Sharks<\/a> and Nashville Predators<\/a>.<\/p>\n