‘Vibes are high’: Why these Maple Leafs should be fun — and better

TORONTO — Training-camp rust was still clinging to the Toronto Maple Leafs’ skates as Auston Matthews found himself fielding a long-view question about lottery prize Gavin McKenna, an 18-year-old of tantalizing potential and zero professional games played.

Matthews, busy rewriting the 109-year-old franchise’s record book before his 30th birthday, was asked if Toronto’s next No. 1–overall draftee is destined to become the face of the franchise. 

Will the Maple Leafs one day be McKenna’s team?

“Absolutely. I think that time will eventually come,” replied Matthews. Then the captain flashed that sardonic smile, the one that wants to pump the brakes on a reporter’s premise. 

“I think that’s looking a little bit into the future, as you guys love to do. But he’s got a great head on his shoulders. He’s extremely humble, confident in himself. He’s going to continue to learn, continue to grow and get better each and every day.” 

Yes, McKenna is something special. Fast and smart. Hands of David Blaine. Feet of Fred Astaire. The Maple Leafs plumbed great luck when they were down on theirs, again. 

But Matthews has lived through all this anticipation and hype. And he wants to send a clear message to McKenna, his teammates, and all you fans and critics who will watch with great interest as the tale of the 2026-27 Toronto Maple Leafs is written. 

Focus on the present. 

Channel your power of curiosity.

Because, for the first time in a long time, the regular season means something in these parts. So many things look and feel different around what Lightning coach Jon Cooper memorably called “the same cast of characters.” Finally. Joyfully.

For too many Septembers, Matthews, Morgan Rielly, William Nylander, John Tavares, and the high-expectations Leafs would reconvene after post-season disaster. Another round of heartbreak and consensus underperformance when it really matters. 

No one hoists the Stanley Cup in November, so those camps felt like the beginning of a six-month slog of dress rehearsals before the real show began.

But what was once the NHL’s longest active playoff streak (nine years) exploded to shambles in the great tire fire of 2025-26. Personnel was gutted from the front office, the bench, and virtually every other department on the ol’ org chart. A couple goalies got traded. Eleven(!) new roster players were recruited.

Lightened baggage and cleaner slates.

“Vibes are high,” Rielly enthuses.

This is what you get when you freefall from top five to bottom five and get (accurately) labelled as the most disappointing team in hockey. When your defence is porous and your culture smells putrid. When the sum is so much less than the parts, it’s time to find a whole new equation.

Alas, from haplessness springs hope. Can’t get any worse, right?

“It’s interesting,” says Jake McCabe, a rare Leaf who played both excellent and healthy last season. Before getting traded north in 2022, the veteran spent nine years toiling for crummy teams in Buffalo and Chicago. He is in a reflective mood. “You know, it took me 500 games of missing the playoffs in my career — until I got here (and made them). So, last year was a reminder of not taking things for granted. 

“Auston and Mo and John and Will, it’s expected to make the playoffs — which is how it should be. But you can’t take it for granted.” 

To a man, the Leafs leadership group is quick to credit new GM John Chayka’s off-season aggression. 

McKenna is the best kind of fluke, the quality of top-six, playmaking winger that rarely hits the open market and that executives can seldom afford to trade for.

In comes Darren Raddysh, the best offensive defenceman available in free agency and a 22-goal, 70-point right-shot point bomb that could pound the Leafs power-play back to elite.

Top-six scoring dynamo Kirill Marchenko, the Blue Jackets’ leading goal-getter three years running, is an upgrade in speed and (for one season only) cap hit from power forward Matthew Knies. He has the potential to spark a debate and create a highlight every time he hops the boards.

Jack Roslovic is an intriguing flyer, what with his history of chemistry bursts alongside the elite and longstanding friendship with Matthews. He’s also here after things didn’t work out with his previous five teams.

We see a remodelled, veteran bottom-six (Nick Paul, Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime, Teddy Blueger, Zack McEwen) with multiple centre options and multiple pre-season fighting majors.

And, looky here, a Hall of Fame–bound, two-time Cup-winning goaltender who routinely stays healthy enough for a real starter’s workload. Sergei Bobrovsky, 38, ain’t young. But for the first time in four summers, he’s had a five-plus months to rest and train. If only one Atlantic power bounces back to contender status, Bobrovsky wants it to be his new one.

“He's been all the way and won it,” Nylander says. “So, that’s something that you want to bring here.”

“Someone we’ve seen a lot of over the years, and someone that's stolen games, frankly, and been the best part of that team,” McCabe adds of the ex-Panther. 

“So, just a ton of great pieces that we’ve added, a lot of great people that we’ve added. These last two weeks have been kind of seamless with these new guys, and I hope they feel the same, because it's an exciting group. Love the optimism.”

A strong source of that optimism when the puck drops against divisional favourite Montreal Tuesday won’t be in uniform.

Jim Hiller, Chayka’s surprise choice for coach, envisions a swarming possession attack that frees his blue-chip forwards to flex their creative muscle and props Rielly and Raddysh in position to push offence. Hiller has been light on criticism, but that’s easy to do when you haven’t lost a game yet.

“Very positive,” says Chris Tanev, one of several healthy and important bounce-back candidates on the roster. “Not a ton of yelling or screaming.”

Bag skates and punishing battle drills have been supplanted by rush offence and diligent backtracking. 

“We want to be a fast, hard-skating team,” declares Matthews, who looks up to speed for a guy coming off knee surgery and two years of wonky-backitis.

The Maple Leafs — aging and against it; refreshed and eager to rebound — don’t want to dwell on the past. Nor do they wish to gaze into their McKenna-led future.

They are here and now, staring at portals to two divergent multiverses. This season is their sliding-doors moment. 

Do enough of the piling question marks — a GM and coach hired among raised eyebrows; a superstar whose 69-goal best self is drifting to the rearview; a past-prime D corps that disappointed; a marquee defenceman with one great year, and another whom they tried to trade; a goalie they’re paying till age 40; a phenom who will require patience and growth — result in affirmative answers? Will they rally back to relevance?

Or does health and age and unfamiliarity and a deep division and a risky, run-and-gun play style undo Hiller and Chayka’s best laid plans? 

If that’s the case, Matthews (UFA 2028) may be handing the mantle to McKenna sooner than anyone in this town wants him to.

But that’s a problem for tomorrow’s Maple Leafs, if it becomes one at all. 

Today’s Leafs still have a chance to jump through the sunnier multiverse, one with a 50-goal sniper, the best setup man since the last one ducked out, and the true No. 1 goalie and power-play quarterback they’ve been seeking for years.

Our only guarantee: This edition of the team will be the most fun and fascinating since … well, since Matthews was about McKenna’s age.

“It is exciting when you bring in some new faces,” Matthews says. “There is always a level of excitement when there is change, and we have experienced quite a bit of it this year. But I think it has been a lot of good change.

“Everybody seems excited, on the same page, and ready to get going and hit the ground running.”