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Toronto Maple Leafs forward William Nylander (John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images)

Maple Leafs News & Rumours: Woll, Nylander, Babcock & Berube’s Job

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By The Old Prof | Last updated Mar 1, 2026 12:45 PM ET

The night actually started well for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Morgan Rielly jumped into the rush and scored less than three minutes in, and for a moment, it looked like the Maple Leafs might finally shake off this slump. Instead, everything flipped the other way fast. The Ottawa Senators took over the rest of the period, rattling off the next 19 shots and putting three straight past Joseph Woll. Toronto looked stuck in quicksand—slow reactions, loose structure, and no real pushback once they fell behind.

Things briefly tightened when William Nylander made it 3–2 in the second period, but Ottawa erased that spark almost immediately. Drake Batherson scored his second of the night less than two minutes later. Toronto challenged for offside, lost, and then Dylan Cozens scored. Eventually, the Maple Leafs were embarrassed, losing 5–2.

That was it for Woll, who finished with 23 saves on 28 shots before Anthony Stolarz came in and stopped everything he faced. But that’s become a familiar pattern lately: the goalie takes the heat because the team in front can’t hold water.

Item One: Nylander Finally Breaks Through After the Olympics

William Nylander hadn’t found the back of the net since returning from the Olympics, but he snapped that short drought with a clean finish against Ottawa. It was one of the few bright spots in a game where Toronto struggled to generate anything sustained, and he once again looked like the only forward capable of creating his own offence when the team sagged.

Since coming back from representing Sweden, Nylander has three points in three games and eight shots in that span. The pace and timing look normal; he’s doing his part. The problem is that his individual bursts can’t drag the whole team out of its issues. Toronto isn’t playing fast, nor are they connecting passes through the neutral zone, and they’re relying on a couple of players to make magic. The results are isolated.

Even so, he’s still leading the team in scoring with 55 points in 43 games. That’s ahead of Auston Matthews, and he’s done it in significantly fewer appearances. With the Maple Leafs fighting their own bad habits every night, Nylander finding the net again is at least one sign of life.

Item Two: The Maple Leafs Are Losing the Slot Battle

There’s a growing trend that’s becoming impossible to ignore: Toronto keeps losing the middle of the ice. After Rielly’s early goal, the Maple Leafs generated almost nothing inside the dots. Ottawa owned the slot, won the retrievals, and forced Toronto into a soft perimeter game that wasn’t going to threaten Linus Ullmark.

Toronto Maple Leafs goaltenders Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz (James Guillory-Imagn Images)

What’s worse is how easily opponents are getting to Toronto’s net. Ottawa’s first three goals weren’t wild breakdowns. They were simple speed entries and battles lost in tight. When you consistently lose the middle of the ice, your goalie will always look like he’s struggling. That’s exactly what’s happening. Woll didn’t have a good night, but he also didn’t get a fair one.

Head coach Craig Berube tried juggling lines. Defensive pairings were shuffled again. Nothing stuck. Until the Maple Leafs start controlling the middle, they’re going to keep tripping over the same problems.

Item Three: How Long Before Berube’s Gone? The Team Looks Checked Out

This recent slide feels like something deeper than a losing streak. It looks like a group running on fumes and maybe running out of belief. The Senators’ game was another example of the Maple Leafs hanging their goalie out to dry, losing the effort battles, and getting outworked shift after shift. When a team quits playing connected hockey, the coach usually pays the price first.

Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Craig Berube Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images

It’s starting to feel a lot like November 2019, when head coach Mike Babcock’s last game was a lifeless road loss against the Vegas Golden Knights. The next day, he was out, and Sheldon Keefe took over. The parallels are hard to ignore: disjointed structure, defensive confusion, and a sense that the players have tuned out the message. Berube’s system makes sense in theory, but this roster — older, slower, and not built for heavy forechecking — looks like it’s rejecting it.

If the front office senses the room has slipped away, a move could come quickly. At this point, it wouldn’t be shocking if Monday brought a different voice behind the bench.

What’s Next for the Maple Leafs?

Toronto is at a crossroads. They have to decide if they’re going to ride out this stretch with the current staff or make a change behind the bench before the season gets away from them. A coaching swap won’t fix the roster holes that general manager Brad Treliving left in place, but it might jolt a team that’s playing like it’s mentally cooked.

The schedule doesn’t soften, and the mood around the team feels unstable. They host the Philadelphia Flyers next, and if things start poorly again, the calls for change will only get louder. Whether it’s Berube, the structure, or the roster balance, something isn’t working — and the Maple Leafs are running out of time to pretend otherwise.