Maple Leafs mantra for 2025-26 needs to be ‘not good enough’

Looking back at the Toronto Maple Leafs over the past decade it seems there is a lot that can be learned in hindsight. Hindsight probably would have had the Maple Leafs cut ties with Mitch Marner before his no trade clause kicked in. Hindsight certainly would have led to the Maple Leafs prioritizing Jared McCann over David Kampf and Justin Holl (not every move required hindsight to know it was going to play out terribly.) Hindsight would have the Leafs dodging Nick Foligno, maybe not re-signing Max Domi, and a slew of other moves, but one that is worth zeroing in on today because it runs the risk of being repeated again this season is the Maple Leafs focusing on addressing holes in their lineup instead of improving the team overall.

The Panthers, Lightning, Golden Knights, Hurricanes, Bruins, and pretty much every team that has looked like a more dominant contender than the Leafs in the past few years hasn’t gone into the deadline with the mentality of plugging holes in their roster as the priority. We’ve seen these teams add at the bottom of their rosters but we’ve seen players like Brad Marchand, Jack Eichel, Jack Guentzel, and Hampus Lindholm brought into already strong organizations with the recognition that you are better off when you are pushing talent down in the lineup rather than banking on a third or fourth line centre on a lottery team being the right fit for a third line centre role on a team that wants to contend for the Stanley Cup.

All of those teams could have said, we’re good enough and we don’t need to trade away draft picks to get better, but they made significant moves to improve. They didn’t talk up the need for a top four defenceman all season and then trade for Joel Edmundson at the trade deadline.

Trading is just one part of the Leafs “not good enough” mantra, and while this year should be viewed as a make or break year for Treliving in Toronto now that Shanahan is in the rearview mirror, the responsibilities for eliminating the “good enough” approach to hockey from the Leafs is on Craig Berube and the players as well.

Berube has 82 games to get the Maple Leafs into shape to play not only Craig Berube style hockey, but to get better at countering teams that can shut down Craig Berube hockey. He’s got 82 games to figure out who clicks with Knies and Matthews, but he also has 82 games to figure out what to do when that line goes cold or if someone is too banged up to be effective. The Leafs under Berube and under Sheldon Keefe before him have not been an adaptive team and now you can start making a case for that being more of the players fault than the coach’s. That said, the coach has 82 games to turn the team into a more adaptive, reactive, or arguably pace setting team that has a Plan B for when the opposition anticipates the blueline drop pass to a streaking late comer on the powerplay who will throw a cross ice pass for a one timer or start of an offensive zone cycle. Options are good.

Ultimately, it’s the players that matter most and that’s where the “not good enough” mantra truly needs to take on some meaning. The Core Four era was riddled with post seasons where the Leafs stars have felt comfortable hanging their hats on their regular season numbers and refusing to change when things weren’t working. There’s a reason why fans have become jaded about this group while still recognizing this could be the most talented iteration of the Leafs. While it might not seem reasonable to ask for players playing at the top of their game to give more, the reality is that there aren’t too many Stanley Cup Champions that won by coasting off their talent all the way to the finals.

It’s hard to question the work ethic or commitment of any professional athlete but you could argue that the Leafs could show it more. Take a bit more offence when an opponent is running up the score on them in mid-January, finish a check hard against a smaller defenceman that you might face in the playoffs and hope he remembers that play, and finally be open to doing things that work best for the team not just what works best for the individuals.

All of this is pretty much shouting into the void at this point and there is little doubt that the Leafs do put in work to improve themselves but sometimes it comes in the form of addressing gaps instead of getting better at what is already working. It would nice to see the Leafs commit to a direction and try to perfect it and become versatile in their game. Make other teams worried about how they’ll match to the Leafs rather than spending a season playing one way and then resetting at the trade deadline to figure out how to match to Atlantic Division opponents. If the Leafs take 82 games getting better at Maple Leafs hockey they’ll finally be a serious contender.