Maple Leafs News & Analysis

Maple Leafs free agency opens July 1 with about $27 million in space and a barren market. Why the trade route, not a July 1 splash, is Chayka's smarter play.

Gavin McKenna and the Maple Leafs become official June 26 in Buffalo as Toronto makes the No. 1 pick. The player, the numbers and the fit.

The Matias Maccelli decision is a quiet Maple Leafs RFA problem — arbitration rights, a $3.425M base, and a qualifying-offer call due before July 1.

The McKenna pick looks like a rebuild, but Chayka kept Matthews, Knies and Nylander and spent cap space. This is a Maple Leafs retool, not a teardown.

The Maple Leafs draft-floor trade scenarios — a Rielly deal, a cap dump, moving the 60th pick — are the real story in Buffalo even with McKenna locked in.

The Maple Leafs 2026 draft picks start with McKenna at No. 1, then thin out — a second at 60th, two thirds, and trade-acquired leftovers. The full board.

Auston Matthews has told John Chayka he's all in, per Pierre LeBrun, settling the summer's loudest Maple Leafs question: the captain is staying for 2026-27.

We grade John Chayka's Maple Leafs offseason before the draft: the Woll trade, the Raddysh overpay, the Hiller hire, the Knies stance and McKenna at No. 1.

Maple Leafs goaltending is suddenly crowded. Anthony Stolarz starts, but Ersson, Hildeby and Akhtyamov all chase one job behind him in 2026-27.

The Nick Robertson qualifying offer is the Maple Leafs' next call: tender $1.825M by late June, or lose him. And Robertson wants real term.

The Morgan Rielly trade market is active — he's handed Chayka a West-heavy list with San Jose and Anaheim on it, Vancouver off it, and draft week looming as the deadline.

Boone Jenner is the best UFA centre available, but in a bone-dry market the Maple Leafs centre target search may push Chayka toward a McTavish or Wright trade instead.

A full Gavin McKenna scouting report ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft — his elite playmaking, the physicality questions, the Marner comp, and how the No. 1 pick fits the Maple Leafs.

The Maple Leafs draft strategy under Chayka: McKenna at No. 1, best player available after, and the draft floor as a venue for a Rielly or centre deal.

Toronto signed Tinus Luc Koblar to a three-year entry-level contract. The 18-year-old centre will stay in the SHL with Rögle BK before coming over.

Maple Leafs cap space is about $18.8M after Raddysh. Enough for one addition, but the centre need and a looming Knies raise tighten the math.

A Matthew Knies trade is 'not probable,' John Chayka said Friday. After Knies posted 66 points in 79 games, keeping Toronto's young winger is the correct call.

Toronto shrugged at the Jim Hiller hire, but Chayka's bet on trust over star power is more defensible than it looks.