3 Key Questions the Maple Leafs Must Answer Early in 2026-27

While talk and chatter has slowed down, it was an eventful offseason for Toronto Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka. From excelling at the NHL Draft, to re-shaping his roster in free-agency, he had a busy month of July. As we get closer to the start of the 2026-27 season some questions are going to start to arise. 

With a number of new and veteran players added to the roster, there are many factors that will play a part in a successful season for the Maple Leafs. Here are three early burning questions for the team as they head into the 2026-27 season.

Will Auston Matthews Return to Form?

To say that Auston Matthews’ goal scoring production has dropped over the last two seasons is an understatement. While he has dealt with injuries during that span, including missing the rest of the 2025-26 season after undergoing knee surgery, Matthews’ goal scoring dominance has cooled off. 

It felt like forever that he scored an outstanding 69 goals in 2023-24. After five straight seasons of scoring 40 or more goals, he missed out on that mark in consecutive seasons, scoring 33 in 2024-25 and 27 last season. Many have been pointing to reasons for the decline in production. Playing under a defensive minded coach in former bench boss Craig Berube, not getting to the scoring areas easily as he should, lack of a premier playmaker, being more defensive-minded even though he excelled in that aspect already. The reasons seemed endless. 

With a new system and head coach in Jim Hiller– who worked the power play under Mike Babcock when Matthews was starting out early in his career– there’s some familiarity there that could work in his favour. While that’s a positive for Matthews and the team, first and foremost, he needs to get healthy. A healthy Matthews is a dangerous and potent player offensively. If he’s able to get back to his goal-scoring dominance, that needs to happen. 

His shot speed has gone down to 88.35 mph last season compared to where it was in the 90’s the previous two. He still got to the high danger area and middle of the ice well (169 shots combined), but the conversion wasn’t there. Having some more highly skilled linemates would help as there was a revolving door of players to try and replace Mitch Marner. However, adding a former teammate from his NTDP days in Jack Roslovic and drafting Gavin McKenna first overall, there are options that can help him get going and regain that offensive production.

A lot needs to happen for him to get back to form. If and when he bounces back, look out.

Can Defense Help Out Bobrovsky?

The Maple Leafs went from one of the better shut down defensive teams in 2024-25, to one of the worst in 2025-26. That kind of play style wasn’t sustainable and while they did deal with a slew of injuries, the players they had on their blueline weren’t effective at all. 

Adding players like Darren Raddysh and even Emil Andrae could make them more mobile, but given how majority of the personnel is still there, it’s interesting to see how they approach things for this season. While Hiller is a defensive minded coach, the Kings were also a strong transitional team when he was behind the bench. However, they never got results offensively. 

The Maple Leafs were poor defensively, as they allowed the second most goals against per game (3.60) and most shots against per game (32.4). Those numbers can’t repeat as everyone needs to elevate their game. That being said, can they help out newcomer in goal Sergei Bobrovsky after he had a poor season himself? Bobrovsky does bring durability and pedigree in the crease, but as we’ve seen in the regular season, he has had mixed results. Even though the Florida Panthers were injured last season, he struggled to keep the puck out. 

Can both defense and goalie find a way to help each other to make life easier on everyone? The defense really needs to lock it in in front of him if they want to have success. The Maple Leafs got eaten alive every game with the constant turnovers, defensive zone time and poor transitional and breakout results. If Chayka continues to rebuild the blue line and make them more mobile for the current state of the game, it definitely could lighten the work load for Bobrovsky and even Anthony Stolarz.

Will Secondary Scoring Finally Shine?

It’s a given that Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies will carry the load offensively once again, but the Maple Leafs have struggled to get results from the middle and bottom part of the lineup the last few seasons. Last season, they had four players over 50 points and no other forward had over 20 goals. Bobby McMann was the closest as he had 19 before he got traded to the Seattle Kraken.  

While the production needs to be spread around and you can’t solely rely on your stars, the Maple Leafs do have options to help them out now. Roslovic had back-to-back 20-goal seasons and could very well hit that mark again while hitting 40-points as well. Nick Paul dealt with injuries last season, but he has been a decent depth scorer for the Tampa Bay Lightning hitting that 20-goal, 40-point mark previously. 

Adding Roslovic through free agency and Paul via trade could help boost the offense while also playing their part in other areas. Easton Cowan is poised to take a step forward this season and McKenna will instantly provide the offensive creativity and playmaking in the top-six. 

The Maple Leafs have that mix of veteran and young players to be effective. That area was addressed to improve the depth scoring, now we need to see the results to see if it will actually pay off.