The Maple Leafs are Maple Leafing again

History is repeating itself once more.

The Maple Leafs will be eliminated in the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. While Toronto is still technically competing, there’s nothing to indicate this team can turn things around against Florida after an absolute embarrassment Wednesday night which saw the Leafs lose 6-1 at home, which allowed the Panthers to take a 3-2 series lead and take control to their home ice to close this out.

It’s not so much that Toronto lost. That part can be forgiven. The reigning Stanley Cup champions are tough opponents, and Florida’s forecheck physicality matches up well against the Leafs more finesse-based top lines. The problem that really presented itself on Wednesday is that Toronto’s players just stopped caring. They quit.

That might seem like a harsh assessment, but Toronto players and coach Craig Berube saw it too.

“I don’t think they came any harder than they have. I think we let them come tonight. We stood around and watched,” Leafs coach Craig Berube lamented.

“They outskated us, really. They had the puck, won the races. Like, we just played slow. They were fast. They were on us. They were hungrier. That’s the first period — and that sets the tone.”

It’s absolutely staggering to hear the phrase “they were hungrier” come from a coach after Game 5 in the playoffs, at home, with the potential the Leafs have, and the expectations of not just a city, but an entire hockey-loving country. You almost need to actively try to care less in conditions like that, but Toronto found a way.

“Sloppy play. Not hard enough working. Giving away too many opportunities around our net. There’s a good list of it,” [Mitch] Marner said. “I don’t think anyone’s happy about it.”

P.K. Subban went on a blistering tirade post-game after Toronto’s struggles on ESPN — and in a rare moment of clarity at the announcing desk: He wasn’t wrong.

Subban’s take is conceptually correct — something has to change. The problem is what, and how? It’s not as if Toronto hasn’t tried to right the ship over the years. The franchise has consistently attempted different tacts to find success, but nothing is working. This isn’t like the Dallas Cowboys, a similar organization mired in mediocrity for the last 30 years, but with a common thread of Jerry Jones interference. Meanwhile the Leafs have gone through five general managers in the last 15 years, six head coaches in the same time frame. They’ve pivoted star forwards from Phil Kessell and James van Riemsdyk to Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. The team has made adjustments on defense, rotated through goaltenders.

So while Subban saying the well-trodden axiom of “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,” that doesn’t apply to the Leafs. They’ve done a lot. The problem is that nothing has worked.

The true common thread when it comes to the Leafs is desperation, and the weight of expectation. There’s a “too big to fail” element when it comes to Toronto, and that’s pressured management over the years into making far too many small adjustments in order to stay competitive, rather than accepting the need to do a full rebuild. That has led to a pervasive, incorrect belief that Toronto is far closer to winning a cup than they actually are, and their trade history over the past five years shows it.

• 2025: Traded for Scott Laughton, sending away a 1st round pick and 22-year-old prospect Nikita Grebenkin
• 2025: Traded for Brandon Carlo, sending away a 1st round pick and 20-year-old prospect Fraser Minten
• 2024: Traded for Joel Edmunson on a rental, sending away a 3rd and 5th round pick
• 2023: Traded for Luke Schenn on a rental, sending away a 3rd round pick
• 2023: Traded for Jake McCabe and Sam Lafferty, sending away 1st and 2nd round pick
• 2022: Traded for Matt Giodano and Colin Blackwell, sending away two 2nd round picks, and a 3rd round pick
• 2021: Traded for Stefan Noesen, sending away 1st and 4th round picks

This complete disregard of the draft and developing their prospects has put the Leafs ludicrously far behind without anything to show for it. Ahead of the 2024-25 season The Hockey Writers rated every farm system in the NHL, and Toronto finished 25th because of Grebenkin and Minten — now both are traded away. Teams that finished lower for them all advanced further in the playoffs, showing there’s something happening in that front office where not only is Toronto handing out picks like they’re candy, but incorrectly choosing the targets to acquire, because nobody in the above trade lists have panned out.

What we have right now is a rudderless franchise without any clear goal. There’s no semblance of a plan behind building the Leafs other than “get good skaters,” and without an identity to build to they’re just throwing crap at the wall and hoping it sticks.

The real shame is what’s about to come (and what should happen). Toronto needs to accept that Marner isn’t a piece that can win them the cup and let him leave in free agency. The temptation will be to spend big, but instead this team needs to pull the BandAid off, and it’s going to hurt: Toronto needs to trade Auston Matthews.

Yes, he’s one of the best players in the entire NHL — but right now his trade value will never be higher. It’s a chance to get multiple first round picks, restock their farm, and try to course correct to become great, rather than continue hovering at very good. At this point there’s no amount of retooling with Matthews as the centerpiece that can bring a Stanley Cup to Toronto in the next five years, which is basically his window to remain an elite player with a high price tag.

Will Toronto do that? No, absolutely not. There is no planet in which this team, with this braintrust, locked in this way of thinking will trade one of the NHL’s biggest superstars. It would take too much of a spine to make a move like this, but it’s what this franchise needs. Until something big happens we’ll be back here next year, wondering why the Leafs are flaming out in the playoffs once more.