Maple Leafs’ dream, nightmare scenario for 2026 NHL Trade Deadline

The Toronto Maple Leafs are in the home stretch of a season that has been a major disappointment. In the years since they drafted Auston Matthews (2016) and added John Taveras in free agency (2018), the hope for Leafs supporters is that the team would put its long Stanley Cup drought behind them.

It has not happened. Through the years, the Leafs have become a good-to-excellent regular-season team and a bust out in the playoffs. The Maple Leafs have made the postseason nine consecutive times, but they have only won a first-round series twice. Other than that, it has been utter failure.

The pattern has changed this season as the 2025-26 regular season has been a disaster. The Maple Leafs (27-23-9) are in last place in the Atlantic Division and they are eight points out of the last playoff position in the Eastern Conference. They would have a boatload of teams (six) that they would have to jump over to get to the postseason. They have 23 games remaining and while they still have a mathematical chance, but there is no way general manager Brad Treliving is looking at the situation and trying to add to the Leafs’ core.

Instead, this is a season where the Leafs are going to be sellers at the March 6 trade deadline. They have a number of players with value that they can move for draft choices and prospects that will help the team in the future. It certainly hurts that the Maple Leafs have not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, but the pressure is suddenly off for this year. They are not going to change that situation this year, so they might as well change some of the players for the future.

Forward Bobby McMann, a right wing on the team’s third line, could be among the team’s most valuable trade chips.

Let the trading begin for Treliving and Leafs

McMann is having the best season of his career and he could become a key contributor on the second or third lines for multiple playoff contenders at the trade deadline. McMann has already scored 19 goals and added 13 assists in 58 games. It comes a year after McMann hit the 20-goal mark a year ago and scored 34 points in 74 games.

McMann has excellent size at 6-2 and 217 pounds, and the left-handed shooter can play either right or left wing. He will turn 30 in June and he will be a free agent at the end of the season.

A team that trades for McMann is obviously interested in improving their roster for the stretch run of the regular season and the upcoming playoffs, but that team will have the opportunity to make a substantial offer to sign him for the future.
McMann is in the final year of a two-year deal that pays him $2.7 million, so an offer of $3-5 million per season will clearly get the player’s attention.

The Leafs should be able to get a substantial return for McMann, especially if Toronto’s trade partner indicates an interest in making McMann a significant contract offer for the future. The playoff-hopeful Buffalo Sabres are among the teams that are likely to be interested in McMann.

Scott Laughton, Anthony Stolarz also ready to move

The 31-year-old Laughton is a 13-year NHL veteran who spent 11 seasons with the Flyers before he moved on to the Maple Leafs last season. Laughton is not a star and he is not paid like one. He has a $1.5 million cap hit and he can play a physical game that would allow him to be a fourth-line player for a number of teams.

Laughton has just 8 goals and 3 assists this season, and he has never scored more 18 goals in a season, but this all-purpose center will play a physical game and do everything in his power to help his team.

His best offensive showing may have been in the 2020 playoff bubble, when he scored five goals and four assists in 15 games for the Flyers.

The Leafs can move goaltender Anthony Stolarz without worrying about the long-term impact. The Leafs appear to have multiple goaltenders who can play decently even though none are superstars.

Joseph Woll is the top goaltender and Dennis Hildeby also proved to be fairly competent. As a result, they can move Stolarz, a 9-year veteran who has played for five NHL teams.

Stolarz has been ordinary this year with a 3.60 GAA and an .882 save percentage. However, he had a 2.14 GAA and a .926 save percentage a year ago with the Leafs, so he can turn things around.

Doing nothing would be the nightmare scenario for Leafs

Treliving is a veteran hockey manager who knows all the ins and outs of running a franchise. His road map is clear and he needs to acquire future assets by trading veterans.

However, working for the most valuable franchise in the sport and Canada creates incredible pressure. Treliving has to measure out all the angles, but he can’t play the “what if” game with the Leafs and start hoping for a turnaround that is not going to happen.

If Treliving became paralyzed by the pressure and did nothing he would be hurting the Maple Leafs. That is the nightmare scenario for this team at the trade deadline.

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