After the Toronto Maple Leafs season ended, general manager Brad Treliving said his team needed a “DNA change.”
Whether or not it plays out that way, the Maple Leafs certainly will have a different look when they gather for training camp next month in their bid to win two Stanley Cup Playoff rounds in the same year for the first time since reaching the Eastern Conference Final against the Carolina Hurricanes in 2002.
“There will be change moving forward. That’s just the nature of the business,” Treliving said. “We’ve got to find a way to create the team, both between the ears and personnel, to be our best at the critical moments.”
Toronto (52-26-4) finished first in the Atlantic Division with 108 points, six ahead of the Tampa Bay Lightning and 10 ahead of the eventual Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. But after defeating the Ottawa Senators in six games in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round, the Maple Leafs were eliminated in seven games by the Panthers, losing four of the final five games of the series after winning the first two.
“We fell short of where we wanted to be and we fell short of where I thought we could be,” Treliving said.
As such, there were two significant departures after the season, one off the ice and one on. Team president Brendan Shanahan was relieved of his duties after 11 seasons, leaving Treliving and coach Craig Berube with more control over hockey operations and personnel decisions. Forward Mitch Marner, a pending free agent, was sent to the Vegas Golden Knights on July 1 in a sign-and-trade deal.
Marner, whom the Maple Leafs drafted No. 4 in the 2015 NHL Draft, ranks fifth on Toronto’s all-time scoring list with 741 points (221 goals, 520 assists) in 657 games. This season will mark the first time since the 2015-16 season that the team’s long-running core of Marner, center Auston Matthews, forward William Nylander and defenseman Morgan Rielly will not be teammates.
The Maple Leafs had lost six consecutive Game 7s with those four players on the roster, and seven straight since their last such win in 2004 as the franchise chases its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
“We’ll miss Mitch for sure,” Nylander said. “But we still have a good team. We had a really good season except for a couple of bad games against Florida (in the playoffs). We need to learn from those to take the next step.
“We’ve brought in guys over the summer who certainly can help us and add depth to the team.”
That includes a mixture of hustle and muscle, given a trio of additions up front.
Dakota Joshua, acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on July 17 for a fourth-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, is known for being ultra-competitive in the corners and along the boards. Nicolas Roy came over in the Marner trade and brings Stanley Cup pedigree to the Maple Leafs, having been a member of the 2023 Vegas Golden Knights championship team. Matias Maccelli, acquired in a trade with the Utah Mammoth on June 30 for a conditional third-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, will try to replicate the form he had in 2023-24, when he set career highs in goals (17), assists (40) and points (57) for the Arizona Coyotes.