The NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs Are Struggling To Find Ways To Win

For the last nine years, the large and vocal fanbase of the Toronto Maple Leafs has lamented its team’s inability to make a meaningful push for the Stanley Cup.

This year’s incarnation of the NHL’s most valuable franchise is reminding observers that things can get worse. Toronto’s championship drought is now creeping toward 60 years. Many of those seasons ended without a sniff of the playoffs.

At the United Center in Chicago on Saturday, the Leafs built a 2-1 lead but surrendered two third-period goals to the upstart Blackhawks for their fifth-straight loss.

Approaching the quarter mark of the 2025-26 campaign, the Leafs are 8-9-2. Heading into games on Monday, Nov. 17, they’re seventh in the Atlantic Division and 28th in the league standings by both points (18) and points percentage (.474).

Yes, they’re banged up. The team’s long injured list is headlined by captain Auston Matthews, who had a ho-hum (by his standards) 14 points in 17 games before suffering a lower-body injury against the Boston Bruins on Nov. 11. His condition is not believed to be serious but he did not practice on Monday and, according to Sportsnet’s Luke Fox, has not yet resumed skating.

With this year’s NHL schedule squeezing more games into fewer days to accommodate February’s three-week break for the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Leafs are not alone in navigating multiple injuries among their roster core.

And even without Matthews, they haven’t had trouble putting the puck in the net.

With 26 points in just 16 games, William Nylander is tied for fourth in league scoring and his 1.63 points per game are the most of his career to date. And after inking a four-year contract extension at a vastly reduced cap hit of $4.39 million on June 27, 35-year-old John Tavares is also producing at the highest rate of his career, at 1.26 points per game. With 11 goals in 19 games, he’s tracking to challenge his career best of 47 from 2018-19, his first year in Toronto.

The problem has come on the back end. The Leafs are giving up 3.79 goals per game, which is second-worst in the league and exactly one goal per game more than last season’s 2.79.

Some of that can be attributed to team defense. The Leafs do miss 2023 Selke Trophy finalist Mitch Marner, who elected to sign an eight-year contract with the Vegas Golden Knights this summer. Defense-first center Scott Laughton and steady blueliner Chris Tanev have also both played just a handful of games amid multiple health challenges, and the roster is now depleted further by injuries to center Nicolas Roy and defender Brandon Carlo.

Last Saturday, Elliotte Friedman reported on Hockey Night in Canada that the Leafs are looking to shake up their roster by making a player-for-player ‘hockey trade’ that doesn’t involve top prospects or any of the team’s biggest stars. With the roster currently so hollowed-out by injuries, that doesn’t leave many options to make available to other teams. And even with this year’s higher salary cap, Toronto is still operating close to the ceiling. It would be necessary to shed salary in order to bring in any one new beyond Sunday’s waiver pickup, journeyman defender Troy Stecher. His cap hit of $787,500 is just a hair above the current league minimum of $775,000.

Then, there’s the goaltending. Last season, the Leafs’ 5-on-5 team save percentage of .926 was second only to the Winnipeg Jets. The team’s two primary goalies both sizzled: in 42 appearances, Joseph Woll finished with a .909 save percentage and 16.8 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, while Anthony Stolarz was .926 and had 25.8 goals saved above expected in 34 games.

Woll may be able to help right the ship. After missing more than a month of the new season for personal reasons, he was steady in his season debut against the Blackhawks on Saturday, even if he couldn’t deliver a win. Stolarz got off to a rough start with an .881 save percentage and minus-5.3 goals saved above expected, and has now missed the last two games with an upper-body injury. Woll is expected to start on Tuesday and could get a chance to get on a roll.

A visit from the similarly moribund St. Louis Blues offers a good opportunity for a team reset. At 6-9-4, the Blues are opening a five-game road trip at Scotiabank Arena after completing a mediocre 1-1-2 homestand of their own.

Adding more urgency, GM Brad Treliving spent big at the 2025 trade deadline. If the Leafs miss the playoffs, the 2026 first-round draft pick they sent to the Boston Bruins as part of the Carlo package last March could become a lottery selection in what’s believed to be a talent-rich draft. Per PuckPedia, Toronto currently holds just one pick in the first four rounds in 2026, in the third round. The team’s 2027 first-rounder was also traded to the Philadelphia Flyers last spring, to bring in Laughton.

If there’s one silver lining, it’s that there is time and opportunity to turn things around. In the Eastern Conference, especially, teams are bunched together in the standings. As bad as things have been for the Toronto Maple Leafs, they’re still just four points out of a playoff spot.