Projected Lineups for Maple Leafs vs Stars – 12/21/25

The Toronto Maple Leafs take on the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center tonight. Here are the projected/expected lineups sourced from NHL.com staff writers, independent correspondents, and others.

MAPLE LEAFS (15-14-5) at STARS (24-7-5)

7 p.m. ET; Victory+, NHLN, SNO

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Mathew Knies — Auston Matthews — Easton Cowan
Matias Maccelli — John Tavares — William Nylander
Dakota Joshua — Scott Laughton — Calle Jarnkrok
Nicholas Robertson — Nicolas Roy — Bobby McMann

Morgan Rielly — Philippe Myers
Jake McCabe — Troy Stecher
Simon Benoit — Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Dennis Hildeby
Joseph Woll

Scratched: Steven Lorentz Max Domi, Henry Thrun

Injured: Chris Tanev (upper body), Anthony Stolarz (upper body), Brandon Carlo (lower body), Dakota Mermis (lower body)

Status report

The Maple Leafs did not hold a morning skate after a 5-3 loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday.

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Stars projected lineup

Matt Duchene — Wyatt Johnston — Mikko Rantanen
Jason Robertson — Roope Hintz — Jamie Benn
Justin Hryckowian — Sam Steel — Mavrik Bourque
Oskar Back — Radek Faksa — Colin Blackwell

Esa Lindell — Miro Heiskanen
Thomas Harley — Nils Lundkvist
Alex Petrovic — Ilya Lybushkin

Jake Oettinger
Casey DeSmith

Scratched: Nathan Bastian, Kyle Capobianco, Adam Erne

Injured: Tyler Seguin (ACL), Lian Bichsel (lower body)

Status report

Blackwell will play after being a healthy scratch for an 8-3 win at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday. He will replace Erne at forward.

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