6 takeaways from the 2025-26 Maple Leafs roster

No matter who you are this is not the Toronto Maple Leafs roster you predicted at the beginning of training camp. If you had Cayden Primeau or Sammy Blais on the Leafs roster, you are a witch. Even if you had Jacob Quillan making the team over David Kampf and Easton Cowan, your take would have been bold to say the least.

The roster can be found here, and below are a few thoughts on the interesting first iteration of the 2025-26 Maple Leafs:

1. Easton Cowan will likely be on the opening night roster but there is some justification if he isn’t.

In all likelihood the slight difference between what the Leafs can accrue over the season from Jacob Quillan’s $875k AAV vs. Easton Cowan’s $873k AAV is why we saw the roster we did today. The Leafs don’t have any other players between $875k-$895k that would have given the Leafs more accrual, but there is a commitment to pinching pennies at play here.

If there is a reason why Easton Cowan isn’t on the opening night roster it probably has a lot to do with Scott Laughton not being on the roster either.

Laughton’s injury has made it so that Easton Cowan’s option as a centre went from an experienced veteran who has excelled at two-way play and has a solid offensive ability to either putting Cowan with Quillan, who would be a fine option if they were together on the Marlies, David Kampf, who would certainly not allow for his offensive game to thrive, or Max Domi, who would put too much defensive responsibility on Cowan. You could consider playing him with Roy, but Craig Berube seems to have bigger plans for the Roy line and while Cowan could work his way there in time, the Leafs don’t want Cowan starting there.

There is also the fact that the Laughton fourth line was good enough for a regular 5-on-5 shift, while a Quillan or Kampf centered fourth line would likely see reduced ice time, something that isn’t considered ideal for an up-and-coming talent.

There aren’t many barriers to getting Cowan back into the NHL and it seems like Craig Berube is legitimately excited about the player, so maybe AHL ice time and overcoming the disappointment of starting on the Marlies will get the most out of Easton.

2. Jacob Quillan being a Leaf would be a sign that the Leafs don’t want Domi at centre (at least on the road)

As mentioned above, the Leafs are in all likelihood pulling the old switcheroo with Cowan and Quillan for cap purposes. That being said, if Cowan isn’t playing or the Leafs aren’t happy with their centre situation, there is good reason to bring Quillan back into the fold.

The fact that Monday’s practice had Max Domi taking line rushes at centre between Dakota Joshua and Nick Robertson points to the fact that door hasn’t completely closed on Domi at centre, but the addition of Quillan to the lineup would give the Leafs the option to avoid it if possible or potentially have a Plan B if it doesn’t go well the first time.

Domi is a swell guy for taking faceoffs and distributes the puck pretty well, which is nice, but a line featuring Domi and Robertson is going to need some sheltering. The Leafs playing at home on Wednesday for the home opener means that Domi could start the season up the middle, but Quillan being added to the roster points to Toronto wanting to try something new on Saturday when on the road against the Red Wings.

Quillan being waivers exempt means that he’ll be an easy move to reverse at any time while the days spent on the roster for players like Kampf, Boyd, Pezzetta, etc. matter more about when they’ll require waivers again. That said, the Maple Leafs didn’t need to include Quillan at all and could have gone with 13 forwards and banked a bit of cap space towards the trade deadline.

The salary cap also matters when looking at Quillan vs. Kampf as Quillan is the cap compliant option of the two.

Quillan over Cowan is the other interesting consideration here and while the Leafs certainly seem more excited about Cowan, Quillan seems like the practical choice.

Finally, further to point #1, using Quillan at centre allows Roy to play with the linemates that he was intended to instead of between Lorentz and Jarnkrok. The Leafs shouldn’t be trying make the best 4th line at the expense of their top three lines.

3. Philippe Myers is the right choice for the seventh defenceman

Now that the Leafs have safely landed Henry Thrun on the Marlies it can be acknowledge that the right decision for right now is that Myers is the seventh defenceman on the Maple Leafs and Thrun gets a chance to hit reset on his career after a rough go of it last year in San Jose.

Myers as a right shot option to rotate in for Benoit is certainly a benefit, and running with 4 LHD and 3 RHD is a lot more balanced even if it is one of the RHD sitting in the press box.

Throw in the fact that Myers is an option with Rielly that works as well and that he makes sense with Benoit as third pairing too if there is an injury that requires the Leafs to move Ekman-Larsson up the lineup card, Toronto is starting in a good position.

Myers might even treat the Leafs to a few more surprises like his heavy shot and impressive walk-in from the blueline late in the season to score one of the prettiest goals of the Leafs season.

4. Nick Robertson and Calle Jarnkrok lineup card fits

Looking at the lineup with Cowan playing, it feels like Robertson is the odd man out. The biggest part of this is putting Cowan in would be a commitment to a more multidimensional version of the lineup and if the Leafs are leaning towards Quillan as an option, they probably wouldn’t want to double up by putting Quillan and Robertson together with Lorentz (although you could make a case for Lorentz sitting and Jarnkrok playing.)

Robertson and Jarnkrok both played in the preseason like players who deserve to be in the lineup every night, you could also say the same about Cowan. The Leafs just have too many options on the wing and that’s not a bad thing. Outside of Nylander and Knies there aren’t any other players that should feel their spot has been written in ink. The hot hand approach isn’t a bad way to start the year for Toronto and might help prevent a slow start.

5. Sammy Blais is for later on

Injuries will happen and trades should probably happen too for the Leafs. When all of that takes hold, that’s when Blais will find his way into the Leafs lineup. For now, he’s a guy that you want your regular lineup guys having to work against and a guy that Berube will trust putting onto the fourth line when he has to.

Blais likely won’t block Easton Cowan’s path to the lineup, but don’t be surprised if Blais finds his way into the lineup after games where Craig Berube calls out the Maple Leafs’ effort.

6. Primeau over Hildeby is an investment in the future two times over

Anthony Stolarz is a late bloomer. Jack Campbell was a late bloomer until he wasn’t. Cayden Primeau being brought into the mix and the Leafs seeing what they could have in him might make a lot of sense. A change of scenery is a wild card in Primeau’s development, and the Leafs have good reason to believe in their goaltending development system. With only seven back-to-back games in the first three months of the season, going with Primeau over Stolarz doesn’t need to happen often and he can get his confidence back over that time.

As for Hildeby, last season definitely pointed to having him start with the Marlies again this season was the right place for him. He’s waivers exempt so sending him down was easy and getting some time before recalling him is a plus as well.

And cutting Reimer loose… Primeau’s potential being explored over getting the last couple of games out of Reimer makes sense. Even playing Hildeby and reassessing where he is at makes more sense than bringing Reimer in. In short, Reimer never really made sense beyond not wanting to play Stolarz in a whole lot of preseason games.

The Leafs roster is $20,000 under the salary cap with Scott Laughton and Marshall Rifai on the injured reserve. Matt Benning and David Kampf have part of their cap hits still counting. It’s likely that the Leafs will put Rifai on the Long Term Injured Reserve and it’s possible Scott Laughton could join him. The Leafs also could move some of their expensive depth to create more flexibility. The opening roster is a starting point and the Leafs are at least starting with some interesting choices that should make the team exciting to watch.