Maple Leafs Roster Update and Home Opener Set

The Toronto Maple Leafs dealt with a massive hole within their defensive corps last season. The absence of Chris Tanev caused that massive hole. With surgery and injuries behind him, Tanev is fully healthy and ready to go. He is expected to play a major role for new head coach Jim Hiller next season.

I expect Hiller to fall in love with Tanev’s game, so we’re likely to see the veteran defenseman have a significant role in the Maple Leafs’ top-four this season. With Toronto GM John Chayka adding Darren Raddysh, who is also a right-shooting defenseman, Tanev won’t be asked to play top-line minutes. Playing in a lesser role will allow for the 36-year-old Tanev to hopefully stay healthy and injury-free.

He can focus more on a shutdown role against the opposing team’s top line. Last season, Toronto couldn’t shut anyone down. The team seemed lost without Tanev. As a result, the defense pairings were consistently changing. Chayka has made a few changes to the defense corps. Hopefully, it’ll pay off for the Maple Leafs.

Toronto Has Credibility in the Crease with Bobrovsky

On Wednesday, former NHL goaltender Darren Pang from TNT joined Leafs Morning Take with Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill to discuss the addition of Sergei Bobrovsky and more.

“Sergei Bobrovsky’s going to go into a net full of pressure, and last time I looked, he was a pretty good pressure goaltender,” Pang said. “With [Anthony] Stolarz in and out with the knee injury and injuries he’s had, you have a real constant in Bobrovsky. I think they can be a really good tandem.”

Used properly, the tandem of Bobrovsky and Stolarz could be very effective for Toronto. Especially with a shutdown pair of Tanev and Jake McCabe keeping the opponents’ top line in check on most nights.

Maple Leafs Home Opener is Set

While the entire NHL schedule for the 2026-27 season is set to be released this afternoon (July 16), the NHL announced all 32 home openers on Wednesday. To the surprise of no one, the Maple Leafs home opener will be against their archrivals, the Montreal Canadiens. The game will take place on September 29th.

This will be the seventh year in a row the Maple Leafs open the season against Montreal. The 2019-20 home opener was against the Ottawa Senators. Since then, it’s been Toronto and Montreal every year. The Maple Leafs and Canadiens usually rotate between which team hosts the season-opener. However, Toronto will be hosting the opener for the second year in a row. They defeated the Canadiens 5-2 at home in last season’s opener.

Toronto currently holds a ten-game home-opener winning streak. Their last loss in a home-opener was in 2015, when they lost 3-1 to the Canadiens. The Maple Leafs have never lost the home opener during the Auston Matthews era.

Toronto will begin a new era this season with many changes within the organization. From the front office to the coaching staff to the players on the ice. After a horrible 2025-26 season, Toronto is looking to get back into the playoff picture.