Leafs need to be prepared in case 2026-27 season falls apart
The Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 2025-26 season was a disaster, as the team was mathematically eliminated from contention for the Stanley Cup Playoffs earlier this week.
With the team missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014-15, there’s lots of discussion over what the Leafs should do moving forward. Toronto already fired general manager Brad Treliving and they’ve begun the search for potential replacements. There’s also discussion as to what the team will do with head coach Craig Berube going forward.
But what may be most important is what the team will do beyond next season. If the Leafs’ 2026-27 campaign goes as poorly as their 2025-26 season, then the franchise may have to make some difficult decisions going forward.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton are joined by The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta for another edition of “Insider Notebook” to discuss the Leafs’
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s walk down this exercise a bit: If you’re the new Leafs GM and Keith Pelley is giving you a five-year contract and you can retool and do it your way, but then you talk to Auston Matthews and realize if this next year doesn’t go well, he’s walking out the door.
That’s putting the new GM and president in a really, really tough spot, where they might not be able to go into the offseason and say, “Hey, let’s take our time and reevaluate.” They’re forced into action early, based on that sort of a timeline.
David Pagnotta: Pelley mentioned that perfect scenario where they find a new guy in the middle of May. That gives you a month-and-a-half ahead of the draft and all the movement that occurs ahead of that time, then July 1.
Whoever comes in will have to have that sub-plotted plan, that Plan B scenario in case the 2026-27 season doesn’t go well. You have to be comfortable in your messaging to ownership, to the rest of the team and to the fanbase if it gets to that point where you’re saying, “oh crap, here’s the new direction we need to go in.”
Technically, they can use Auston as a scapegoat and say “this was his decision, we’re going to honor it and get better but it’s going to be longer than we anticipated.” Again, it may never come down to that, but you have to prepare for that potential outcome. Whoever comes in running the ship on the hockey side for the Leafs, be it president or GM, both will have to know exactly what Plan B is going to be if crap hits the fan again, next season.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…