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Auston Matthews and William Nylander of the Toronto Maple Leafs (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

How the 2025 Maple Leafs’ Playoff Roster Was Built

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Ben Fisher | Last updated Apr 29, 2025 3:50 PM ET

The growth and development of an NHL roster is never linear. There’s always ebbs and flows, departures and arrivals, new executive voices and opinions to consider and all sorts of unpredictable factors. Every franchise wants to win, but each one faces its own unique journey to get there, filled with plenty of obstacles and opportunities along the way.

Just as no one player can be given credit for the Atlantic Division-winning squad that is enjoying a 3-1 series lead on the Ottawa Senators, no one executive has been solely responsible for building the Toronto Maple Leafs’ lineup. Lou Lamoriello was in the GM’s chair when Auston Matthews was drafted, Kyle Dubas had just taken the reins when John Tavares signed with the club, and now, Brad Treliving has overseen the additions of Chris Tanev and others. Heck, if you go back even further, Brian Burke was the final decision-maker when Morgan Rielly was drafted in 2012.

There is no blueprint for building a winning hockey club. What the Maple Leafs are hoping, however, is that through the efforts of front offices past and present, they have found a successful balance of hitting on their draft choices, making productive trades, signing the right free agents and generally managing a roster to maximize its potential for success.

While they still have a long way to go, it is worth taking a moment to look back and examine how the Maple Leafs’ roster was built and how it has taken more than a decade’s worth of work to bring this particular group together.

Maple Leafs Acquired Via Draft

It’s been a long time since Toronto had a high draft pick. That’s because the franchise nailed a string of high selections between 2012 and 2016, which coincides with the last time they picked any higher than 15th overall. Rielly (No. 5, 2012), William Nylander (No. 8, 2014), Mitch Marner (No. 4, 2015) and Matthews (No. 1, 2016) are the foundation of the organization, all drafted and developed in-house. Each of Nylander, Marner and Matthews ranks among the most productive players of their respective draft classes.

The fact that the Maple Leafs haven’t been in a position to make another top-of-the-draft selection in recent years serves as a testament to the success of a club that has reached the playoffs in all of Matthews’ nine NHL seasons. However, they have used the draft to find other key supporting pieces.

Joseph Woll (No. 62, 2016) has been a key part of Toronto’s goaltending picture over the past two seasons, seeing action in more than half of the team’s regular-season games this season while posting solid career numbers (2.74 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 78 games). Matthew Knies (No. 57, 2021) has quickly gone from second-round pick to an emerging star as a 29-goal scorer and clutch playoff performer. Depth forwards Pontus Holmberg (No. 156, 2018) and Nicholas Robertson (No. 53, 2019) were also drafted by the organization.

Maple Leafs Acquired Via Trade

The lack of return on draft capital in recent seasons is, in part, due to the fact that they haven’t had much of it. Apart from selecting in later rounds (thanks to their success), they’ve also made use of their draft picks as trade assets to bring in support for their core and stock up at the trade deadline.

The Jake McCabe trade seems to have worked out well, as the Maple Leafs will happily sit out the first round of this year’s draft and the second round in 2026 after landing a trusted defensive anchor and top pairing staple at the 2023 Trade Deadline. This year, Toronto landed Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo to play key roles down the stretch and in the playoffs. Adding the two veterans didn’t come cheap (the club parted ways with two first-rounders, Fraser Minten and Nikita Grebenkin), but they still have chances to prove their worth this postseason and beyond.

The “and beyond” marks a slight departure for Treliving from some of his predecessors. Where past Maple Leafs decision-makers didn’t mind adding rental players, the Treliving-led front office appeared focused on bringing in players with term. The short-term nature of the additions of players like Ryan O’Reilly, Nick Foligno, Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin helps explain why there aren’t more players added via trade among the Maple Leafs’ ranks. That trend likely won’t continue, with McCabe having since been extended and Laughton and Carlo signed past this season.

Maple Leafs Acquired Via Free Agency

Most of the Maple Leafs’ roster is made up of free agents who signed with the club. First and foremost, Toronto managed to pull off one of the biggest free agent signings in modern NHL history when they landed Tavares in the summer of 2018. That contract, which expires this summer, has now produced 222 goals and 493 points over seven seasons, not to mention his signature moment of scoring the overtime series-clinching goal in Game 6 of their 2023 First-Round match-up with the Tampa Bay Lightning.

John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)

Tavares hasn’t been the only home run signing, either. Tanev has arguably been among the most valuable Maple Leafs this season as an elite shot blocker and veteran blue line presence (although you could argue that he was a trade acquisition since the team acquired his rights from the Dallas Stars before free agency). Anthony Stolarz has been a revelation since coming over from the Florida Panthers, earning trust as Toronto’s go-to postseason No. 1 option in net – at a bargain rate of $2.5 million, no less.

If Tavares, Tanev and Stolarz were home runs, then the lineup also features a steady stream of solid singles and doubles. Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Steven Lorentz joined Stolarz in coming over from the defending champion Panthers and have both served as key components of the organization’s depth. Simon Benoit provided strong defensive insurance for most of the regular season before becoming an unlikely overtime hero in the playoffs. Meanwhile, Max Domi and Calle Jarnkrok are signed to questionable free agent contracts, but at least they are still aiding in the Maple Leafs’ postseason efforts (including Domi’s Game 2 OT winner).

And let’s not forget Bobby McMann, who went undrafted despite a successful college career at Colgate University, signed an American Hockey League contract with the Toronto Marlies and later joined the Maple Leafs on an entry-level deal. The 28-year-old has one more year remaining on what was a two-year, $2.7 million contract signed before this season, but after notching 20 goals, he looks poised for a nice salary increase from the $1.35 million he’s now earning annually.

All told, 19 players have seen the ice for the Maple Leafs in the postseason thus far, with Woll making it an even 20 as the team’s backup goalie. Of those players, eight were drafted into the organization (40%), three were added by trade (15%) and nine signed on the dotted line to come to Toronto (45%). That balance offers a glimpse of an organization that has done well to maximize its draft picks while hitting on a few free agent signings and making a couple of ‘win now’ trades.