Should the Leafs commit to selling or push for a playoff spot?
The Toronto Maple Leafs lost their first game coming out of the Olympic break on Wednesday, dropping a 4-2 effort to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Leafs’ loss and what path they should take for the final chunk of the 2025-26 season.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Leafs are six points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with three teams sitting between them and the Boston Bruins, who currently hold the No. 2 Wildcard spot. MoneyPuck has Toronto at a six percent chance of making the playoffs.
We are eight days away from the NHL Trade Deadline. Carter, was last night a signal to GM Brad Treliving that it is time to sell? Or is that simply an overreaction to one game?
Carter Hutton: No, I don’t think it’s an overreaction. It’s the fact that they won those three games before then, but dropped the six games before that. This is concerning for a team that has been fragile and has not had the production it needs to compete.
As we start to look at the Atlantic Division, the Lightning are a total powerhouse, and I don’t know if the Leafs want to leverage their future to push this year. I think it’s going to have to come from the players within the room … and I think a few of those guys may be moved out.
It’s been disappointing. This has been a very disappointing year for the Toronto Maple Leafs, in general.
Tyler Yaremchuk: A couple of things working against the Leafs right now: If the draft lottery were held today, the Leafs would be in the 13th spot in the draft, and their first-round pick was traded to the Bruins last year. Part of this delicate balance is if they’re going to sell at the deadline, and potentially go into a downward spiral, you need to get into the bottom-five of the standings, otherwise your first-round pick goes to the Bruins.
I can’t think of anything worse than if you were to finish sixth or seventh overall, or even if you finished fifth overall and slid out of that spot from the lottery results. There’s a potential of giving up a top-10 pick as a result of that Brandon Carlo trade from last year, which would be an absolute disaster.
Do you keep your powder dry and try to push, because hey, you got nothing to lose and that first-round pick will be going to Boston, so who cares? Or do you sit there and say, “s–t, we’re going to lose our first-round pick, let’s try to recoup as many assets as possible.”
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…