Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\nMiles out of a wild card and still 10 points shy of his rookie total, Maccelli sits down in his stall following a recent morning skate and discusses his uncertain future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to stay in Toronto. I love the city and love the guys and everything about it. So, I would love to stay,\u201d Maccelli tells Sportsnet.ca.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s like the biggest hockey city there is in the world, and the most recognizable team, and the fans and the city and everything about it \u2014 it\u2019s just great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maccelli, 25, is just one piece of the puzzling Maple Leafs who has been a shade less than great this season.<\/p>\n
The Turku, Finland, native\u2019s stat line \u2014 14 goals and 25 assists through 70 games \u2014 is far from horrible but, given his top-six opportunity and 57-point peak as a 23-year-old in Arizona, it is underwhelming.<\/p>\n
A receding tide lowers all boats.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s frustrating for all the guys here. I mean, I don\u2019t really have much to say about it. To be honest, it\u2019s just disappointing that we put ourselves in this position where we aren\u2019t in the playoffs,\u201d Maccelli says.<\/p>\n
Maccelli was gifted an early look on Auston Matthews\u2019s wing only to eventually tumble to healthy-scratch status, as he did for a stretch in Utah last season. But his production and presence saw a late uptick, and he\u2019s enjoyed some highlight-worthy offensive moments as a top-six regular while the injury-riddled Leafs skate out the string.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about opportunity,\u201d Maccelli says. \u201cYou get a little more ice time, and then you start feeling better with the puck, without the puck, and you start playing better and feel more comfortable out there. And I\u2019ve just got more trust from the coaches in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
True. Craig Berube has featured Maccelli more on the power-play and in key offensive situations down the stretch than the coach did when the Leafs were in the postseason fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, he\u2019s been a lot better,\u201d Berube says. \u201cHe went through a real good stretch there not long ago where he was doing some real good things and putting points on the board. He\u2019s got to get back to that. I think it\u2019s dropped off a bit lately, but we need him to be a point producer for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
That will be the case in 2026-27 for Toronto or whatever club Maccelli represents.<\/p>\n
The crafty playmaker\u2019s takeaway-to-giveaway ratio (14-65) is far from kind, his plus\/minus (-22) is a yikes, and Berube never truly trusted the forward defensively.<\/p>\n
Maccelli started just 35.5 per cent of his shifts in the D-zone this season, a career low.<\/p>\n
Among the Maple Leafs\u2019 long list of improvements to be in the mix next season is a reshaping of the type of support forwards they deploy.<\/p>\n
Maccelli, Max Domi, and Nick Robertson are all smallish, streaky contributors with useful offensive tools; they all have defensive flaws.<\/p>\n
How many players of that ilk does one organization need?<\/p>\n
If general manager TBD elects to retain Maccelli, he\u2019ll either need to negotiate an extension with the impending RFA prior to June 30 or sign off on a qualify offer of $4.11 million \u2014 a tidy raise from the $3.425 million Maccelli is making on the final year of his deal.<\/p>\n
Maccelli, though, is but one of four Toronto RFA forwards armed with arbitration rights this summer. Robertson, Jacob Quillan, and Ryan Tverberg are the others. The Leafs can\u2019t re-sign them all with pay raises.<\/p>\n
Last off-season, the Maple Leafs elected not to qualify RFAs Alex Steeves (now with Boston) and Pontus Holmberg (Tampa Bay). Both late-blooming forwards became unrestricted free agents and have enjoyed career years with their new clubs. Both are headed to the postseason.<\/p>\n
Which is where Maccelli believes the Maple Leafs will return next season. And he hopes to be part of that redemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still see the guys in this room. Honestly, there weren\u2019t many changes from last year, and they were first in the division,\u201d Maccelli says.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I\u2019m confident that with this group and all these guys, and how many good players we’ve got in this locker room, we\u2019ll be right back next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The third-round draft choice Utah received from Toronto in exchange for the shifty winger would be upgraded to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-605896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/32THOUGHTS_500X500_ICON_V2-500x360.jpg\"){kind=icon}
32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n