2026-27 Toronto Maple Leafs General Discussion | Official: Sundin & Chayka to lead front office
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L K
Well-known member
The Atlantic is still going to be a bloodbath next year.
Buffalo isn't a fluke. Montreal is only getting better. Ottawa is still good. Tampa keeps getting older but are still a good regular season team that can be PP merchants. Florida will be better. Toronto should be better. Boston will be fine.
Carolina is going anywhere. Pittsburgh probably could fall back...they had a lot of things go right last year. Philly should be better with a season of Martone. The Islanders will hang around although I'm not convinced on their roster. Columbus will hang around. I'm not sold on Washington but again, not really a bad team either
good teams are going to miss the playoffs in the East again.
Buffalo isn't a fluke. Montreal is only getting better. Ottawa is still good. Tampa keeps getting older but are still a good regular season team that can be PP merchants. Florida will be better. Toronto should be better. Boston will be fine.
Carolina is going anywhere. Pittsburgh probably could fall back...they had a lot of things go right last year. Philly should be better with a season of Martone. The Islanders will hang around although I'm not convinced on their roster. Columbus will hang around. I'm not sold on Washington but again, not really a bad team either
good teams are going to miss the playoffs in the East again.
Not to say that it's a fluke necessarily but they had the 3rd highest overall save percentage in the league this season. Can UPL and Lyon repeat that, I dunno. Goalies are obviously fickle.
Your overall point is of course right though, the East will continue to be tough. I'd say basically every team except maybe the Rangers will think they have a credible chance at making the playoffs.
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herman
Well-known member
Really interesting observation about this year’s playoff group being young, fast, and fun, but potentially an anomaly precipitated by the condensed Olympic schedule that crushed older teams with lots of Olympic entrants.
At the same time, the front office has the schedule in front of them and all the medical/fitness data and cap room this past season to have mitigated the issue easily by playing more kids early on. They did not do that and stuck with aimless, purposeless, stubborn status quo, and sewered the season accordingly.
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mr grieves
Well-known member
Well, they lost an elite talent for nothing. Seems to me like a good time to bumble into a tank.
herman
Well-known member
If that was the actual plan, they wouldn’t have merely landed 5th last by the hair of their chinny chin chins. Knies would’ve been shut down earlier. Nylander would’ve had a more ‘severe’ groin injury.
Literally bad at winning and bad at tanking, but great at not having the puck.
L K
Well-known member
Ummm yeah, maybe their goaltending is a problem
L K
Well-known member
Something not great happened to Max Domi apparently. He had offseason surgery and had some form of complication that the Leafs released a statement this morning that he will be unavailable indefinitely and will be reevaluated in training camp.
That doesn't sound great.
That doesn't sound great.
dappleganger
Well-known member
Terrible news about Max. Hopefully he will be ok.
Guru Tugginmypuddah
Well-known member
Setting it up for LTIR and a role within the Leafs front office once he "retires".
herman
Well-known member
The injury that Domi played through (a question for a different day and front office group) is not the issue: it's the complications that arose from the corrective procedure that is currently impacting his availability for the foreseeable future. Max Domi is Type 1 Diabetic, which while manageable in the day-to-day, comes with a host of serious issues in post-operative situations.
TheMightyOdin
Active member
This is the first time I’m hearing about Max. Hope he recovers fully and is healthy.
L K
Well-known member
There is absolutely zero information to give detailed speculation over in this case.
Don't know what surgery he had done. Don't know what injury he had the surgery to fix. Don't know what complication arose.
He could have had a post operative infection that is going to take a lengthy time to heal. There could have been nerve damage impact his ability to train. He could have had a stroke. He could have developed a pulmonary embolism and needs to be a blood thinners that make playing hockey kind of difficulty. Complication of surgery might be doing heavy lifting here and it might have not been an actual complication but surgery found a much bigger problem.
It's basically pointless to speculate because there is aboslutely no information to go off of other than he won't be ready for the season.
Don't know what surgery he had done. Don't know what injury he had the surgery to fix. Don't know what complication arose.
He could have had a post operative infection that is going to take a lengthy time to heal. There could have been nerve damage impact his ability to train. He could have had a stroke. He could have developed a pulmonary embolism and needs to be a blood thinners that make playing hockey kind of difficulty. Complication of surgery might be doing heavy lifting here and it might have not been an actual complication but surgery found a much bigger problem.
It's basically pointless to speculate because there is aboslutely no information to go off of other than he won't be ready for the season.
He's a type 1 diabetic since he was 12 (Bobby Clarke helped and inspired him). He has another medical condition he mentioned in a video some time ago (I can't recall the name EDIT: celiac). Those conditions have always tempered my criticism of him (though he's made my blood boil at times). Both sides of my family have had issues with diabetes for generations so I have some rough idea of what he's been up against. He's done pretty well under those circumstances.
I do not say that to fuel speculation.
The existence of those additional conditions underscores how futile speculation would be.
Because of them, there is an even wider variety of things that could be going on.
I'm sure the doctors and Domi are doing their best to take care of him.
I hope he is ok and bounces back.
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Frank E
Well-known member
So, with Woodcroft reports going from "frontrunner" to "not interviewing at all", I'm going with the assumption that Woodcroft is not interested in the Leafs job.
I say this because I can't imagine that the Leafs wouldn't want to at least have a chat with the Toronto native.
I say this because I can't imagine that the Leafs wouldn't want to at least have a chat with the Toronto native.
Maple Leafs not interviewing Jay Woodcroft for head coach position
Former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft is not interviewing for the Toronto Maple Leafs' head coaching position, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported on Friday's 32 Thoughts Podcast.
The average length of employment for a NHL coach is 2.3 years.
28th place team. Injured team superstar whose missing his setup man may well depart in a year. Shallow prospect system. Weak UFA market. Aged D. etc
plus side: 1st draft pick. Knies, goaltending depth. Cowan?, Danford? others?
New coach might be a hero for helping them make it back to the playoffs
But beyond that, it is unlikely to end well with a weak propect system and NHL development taking 6 years for a lot of draft picks. It is tough to build a true contender in those 2.3 years. So top tier coaches will probably seek potentially greener/more reliable looking pastures.
I suspect Leafs might have to look at 2nd tier, up and coming coaches - someone looking for a chance. That's not the end of the world. All NHL coaches have to start somewhere/somehow. MLSE board might prefer that as they will be cheaper to fire.