The flip of the calendar hasn’t always been kind to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Usually it’s followed with false hopes and first-round exits — at least that’s been the case in recent years. Now, with 2025 underway, the Maple Leafs have some hopeful resolutions that they will work towards over the next calendar year — with the next five months being a tell-all of what they can expect for next season.
With that, here’s a look at some New Year’s resolutions for Brad Treliving and the Maple Leafs in 2025.
Time to Get Auston Matthews to 100 Percent
It was reported on Wednesday that Auston Matthews was unsure if he’d be able to overcome the injury he’d been dealing with this season before the end of the campaign. This is not the type of news you want as a fan or member of the team to kick off the new calendar year.
Clearly it’s an injury that has been nagging Matthews for the majority of the season and his play hasn’t seemed up to snuff by his standard. While the Maple Leafs have maintained a steady progression even without him in the lineup, the question becomes how long they can continue tor ride it out.
Outside of that, the thinking has to be around what benefit it provides to have him continuously in and out of the lineup disrupting chemistry and not playing at 100 percent. So, as crazy as it sounds, maybe it’s time for the Maple Leafs to keep Matthews out of the lineup until he’s 100 percent ready to come back.
Sure, they will have to battle through adversity and question marks around their captain, but in the long-run it’ll protect him as well as benefit the organization. After all, the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline doesn’t seem that far away now that we’re in 2025. If the injury continues to linger, the Maple Leafs could benefit by using the loophole in the CBA in which they can exceed the NHL’s salary cap with Matthews on long-term injury reserve (LTIR).
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It wouldn’t be the first time a team has done this — the Chicago Blackhawks, Vegas Golden Knights and Tampa Bay Lightning come to mind — and it would allow Matthews to get healthy and give the team an opportunity to add another major piece heading into the playoffs.
Regardless of what Treliving and the Maple Leafs hope to do at the deadline, however, one thing is for sure. Matthews needs to be 100 percent healthy for the Maple Leafs to steer away from another first-round exit and, right now, things aren’t trending in that direction.
Depth and Defensive Scoring a Must for Maple Leafs
It was on their Christmas wish list — depth scoring — but it still seems to be an issue for the team. Add to that they are one of the least productive teams offensively when it comes to their blue line and something needs to give in 2025.
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The depth scoring can be an easy solution with a small add up front. Players like Connor Dewar and Pontus Holmberg have to find ways of being productive with Matthews out of the lineup and that will change the discussion around that.
But when it comes to defensive scoring, the Maple Leafs are 25th in the league for goals by a defenceman. Of their 118 goals this season, only seven were scored by defensemen — Morgan Rielly is they only one that has more than one. That’s just under six percent of the team’s total goals.
Even their point production is 64 of the team’s 314 points — that’s just over 20 percent. When the team brought in players like Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson this offseason, and extended Jake McCabe, it was to allow others like Rielly to play his offensive game.
That hasn’t entirely been the case this season. Now, call it the coaching style or just an overall lack of production by the Maple Leafs’ blue line, but a boost in production would benefit a team missing their leading goal scorer from last season.
Write it down as another resolution, but the Maple Leafs need more scoring from their back end.
Maple Leafs Must Solidify Third Defensive Pairing
Finally, heading into the home stretch of the season, the Maple Leafs need to find a way to solidify their final pairing on the back end. As of now, the Maple Leafs have rolled through Jani Hakanpää, Matt Benning, Philippe Myers, Simon Benoit and Conor Timmins at times on the third pairing.
There has been some speculation around Myers seeing a possible extension from the Maple Leafs at some point, but the front runners for those two spots have been Myers, Timmins and Benoit.
While it’s important to have the flexibility on the blue line come playoff time, the Maple Leafs do need to find a way to solidify the pairings. The chemistry built not only helps in their own end, but could help with the second resolution — defensive production on the scoresheet.
Of the three, Myers averaged just over 17 minutes of ice-time per game this season through 10 games, while both Timmins and Benoit average 16:53 and 16:40, respectively through their 30-plus games.
Overall, it seems as though Timmins and Benoit are the pairing that will stay, but Myers has been favoured when he’s in the lineup. Outside of a move that would shake up their blue line, the Maple Leafs have some decisions to make in solidifying that final pairing as they head in to the final months of the season.
Put these into play and — just maybe — 2025 can be different for the Maple Leafs and Leafs Nation when it comes to falling short and first-round exits.