The Toronto Maple Leafs have had a brutal 2025–26 season. They currently sit 13th in the Eastern Conference and 22nd in the NHL, which has their playoff hopes are dwindling fast. Because of that, there’s a strong chance they sell at the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline.
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According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the Maple Leafs are already testing the market on their players. He discussed this during his Saturday Headlines segment in the second intermission of Toronto’s game, revealing that the organization has started calling around the league to gauge how other teams view their roster.
With the Olympic break just days away, the NHL roster freeze comes into effect on Wednesday. That leaves just two games before the break, which runs from Feb. 6–24. Once play resumes, there will be only two weeks left before the trade deadline. Because of that, it’s safe to assume Maple Leafs general manager Brad Treliving will stay busy on the phones both before and after the Olympics.
Maple Leafs Inching Towards Selling
As mentioned, Friedman suggested the Maple Leafs are pivoting toward selling at the deadline, something they clearly hoped to avoid. Here’s what he said on Saturday Headlines:
“Everybody sees the standings. Everybody sees that the Maple Leafs are in a position they didn’t expect to be in,” Friedman said. “The key thing I heard is they haven’t discussed anything that anyone would call extraordinary or huge or stunning.
I think some of the early conversations are about things you would expect, but they have begun conversations around the league of, ‘What do you think of our roster? What kind of things would you be interested in?’ I don’t think anything right now would be considered earth-shattering.”
If the Maple Leafs commit to selling, the unrestricted free agents will likely go first. That list starts with Bobby McMann, Scott Laughton, Calle Järnkrok, and Troy Stecher. Beyond that, there are several other interesting names who could move to help recoup assets.
Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Simon Benoit, Brandon Carlo, and Anthony Stolarz all make sense as potential trade pieces. If Toronto decides to push the retool further, Matias Maccelli, Max Domi, and Dakota Joshua could also hit the open market. And if there’s any way to make it work, moving on from Morgan Rielly at this stage of his career would be ideal.
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How far the Maple Leafs take this depends on their appetite for change. What’s clear, though, is that this version of the team isn’t working. Changes are coming, and the roster could get a significant overhaul built around Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Matthew Knies.
Whether that happens mostly at the trade deadline or stretches into the offseason remains to be seen. Either way, one priority should be protecting their first-round pick, which is top-five protected. The last thing Toronto can afford is tearing things down only to hand the Boston Bruins a top-10 pick in the draft.
