Maple Leafs – Toronto’s 2025-26 defence left a mark, forcing major changes heading toward July 1. With Chris Tanev back, Darren Raddysh added, and Zach Werenski and other free-agent names hanging over the franchise, GM John Chayka and Mats Sundin face the tightest question
For the Toronto Maple Leafs, the months between the NHL Draft and free agency have the feel of an ongoing repair job. The alarms were already loud after a 2025-26 defence group that never quite found its footing. Now, with July 1 approaching, the Leafs are trying to make the fixes stick—and fast.
In 2025-26, the Leafs D-corps “stunk,” and the numbers and the injuries told the same story. Chris Tanev, described as their best defender the year prior, missed 71 games after getting hurt. Brandon Carlo’s ankle was “mangled,” and he struggled badly. Morgan Rielly carried a huge load, but his game dropped off. When the team couldn’t rely on established roles. it leaned hard on waiver-claim Troy Stetcher for 58 games and Phillippe Myers for nearly 40.
Even the education of the fan base became part of the picture. Toronto supporters had to learn the names of Henry Thrun, Marshall Rifai, William Villaneuve, Matt Benning, and Dakota Mermis—who managed 11 good games before getting injured too.
The Leafs’ defensive struggles weren’t just about who was available. They were reflected in how the team controlled play. By shot attempt differential (Corsi) at five-on-five, Toronto was dead last in the league. By actual shot differential, the Leafs were 31st. And by expected goals percentage, the Leafs were better than the shot numbers suggested, at 29th in the league.
Craig Berube took over a roster that had plenty of problems, but the review of that season is blunt: Toronto “had to start over,” and it has been trying to do exactly that.
The Leafs are already pointing the rebuild in a new direction. Darren Raddysh has been added. and the impact is immediate: he handled tough minutes “admirably last year” as a right-shot defender. scored over 20 goals and produced 70 points while manning the power play. and his underlying numbers were strong at 5-on-5 in hard minutes. The argument is straightforward—Raddysh becomes a crucial piece of the new puzzle.
Then there’s the return of Chris Tanev. The right side shifts from a patchwork of lefties playing off-sides into something more stable: two legitimate, quality right-shot defenders. The claim from the opening is that they both move the puck and think it through, with differing strengths.
Toronto’s work isn’t just personnel—it’s also about structure. At the draft. the Leafs traded Brandon Carlo. their other right-shot guy pencilled into next year’s line-up. for a pair of third-rounders. Toronto also added Emil Andrae—described as a left-shot who played 30 per cent of his shifts on the right side last year.
Put those pieces together and the Leafs’ defensive pairings begin to look different. With Rielly kept in the mix for now, the lineup is sketched as:
McCabe – Raddysh
Ekman-Larsson – Tanev
Rielly – Andrae
The verdict is careful but pointed: better, but still needs work.
Still, the article doesn’t pretend the Carlo move clears everything up.
Brandon Carlo was injured in 2025-26, asked to do too much, and played 19:22 per game. He’s described as solid and responsible, and the price tag next year is presented as under $3.5 million. At 29 years old. he would have been “cheap” and—based on the view in this briefing—coming off a hampered season. he looked like someone who could rebound if placed in a more appropriate role.
There’s also a basketball-court simplicity to the counterargument: if Carlo is clearly your third-pair right defenceman playing 17 minutes and eating penalty killing minutes, Toronto is “ahead of most teams’ sixth D on the right side.”
So why move him? The justification offered is identity and opportunity. The Leafs, the piece argues, want to get away from a roster built around “big” guys who don’t play big. Carlo “doesn’t have jam,” so when defending is “meh,” his game tilts toward a harder-to-defend category.
Another reason: Toronto’s prospect pool has been “desperately thin.” The picks added at the draft—paired with the Carlo trade—are framed as coming from an asset-light situation, even if they don’t help any time soon.
The writing also acknowledges the emotional cost for fans. Carlo had baggage: he “cost the team a first-rounder and Fraser Minten,” and it carried a weight vest in the eyes of supporters that the article calls unfair.
Even with all of that, the conclusion is not fully comfortable. Taking Carlo out of the lineup “as of today” may be explainable, but it doesn’t yet look like it makes the Leafs better.
From there, the briefing sharpens into the bigger looming question: what happens next as the Leafs head into a week where more trades are expected.
The spectre hanging over Toronto is Zach Werenski. The piece describes it as “almost certain” that he will play for Team Not Columbus next year, and it says rumours have the Leafs among the teams he’d be willing to join.
If it happened, it would be the kind of swing that could reset the look of a defence that needs revitalization. But the friction is clear: the Blue Jackets “sound like they want bodies back, not picks.”
For Toronto, that immediately narrows the practical trade inventory to names. The article puts Matthew Knies as the sure one and Easton Cowan as the likely one. It questions who else could be offered to a team trading the Norris Trophy winner. adding that Auston Matthews would not be part of it for several reasons. and that William Nylander “probably isn’t waiving for Columbus.”.
The fear is what it would cost the Leafs up front. If those two young forwards move. the rebuild momentum Toronto has built with its young secondary core up front could be wiped out. The forward picture offered in the piece becomes abruptly uncertain: McKenna – Matthews – Nylander as a top line. then follows with a suggested group of Maccelli – Tavares – Robertson. and Joshua – Groulx – Lorentz.
Complicating that even further is Max Domi being out for the foreseeable future. If Toronto trades two of its young players and loses Domi time. the article argues the Leafs could become “immediately bad up front. ” and that no UFA fix can cover the problem if too many good bodies are shipped out to compete.
That leads to a darker logistical question: how would Toronto get Werenski and still get better overall.
The briefing offers a “dream world” scenario that shows what it might take. In that version. Toronto gives Columbus the first-rounder it received from Colorado next year. another first in 2029. along with Koblar. Danford. Akhtyamov. and then stretches into impossibly specific symbolism with “a new Ferrari and six hugs per day per player for six years”—a line that lands because it underlines just how unrealistic that balancing act would be.
Even so, it tries to map how the defence would look if Toronto made the move.
In a Werenski-centred lineup, with Rielly removed, the defence is laid out as:
Werenski – Raddysh
McCabe – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – Andrae
That would be “a serious, playoff contender-level defence,” the piece says—though it also frames it as beyond unlikely.
There’s also a UFA safety valve. The argument is that Toronto could still grab another UFA defenceman because the bottom pair is still not what you’d want if so many bodies are sent away, including Carlo.
The names attached to July 1 are varied and deliberate. The article mentions Vinny Desharnais and Jamie Oleksiak, as well as Logan Stanley and Erik Gudbranson. It describes the idea that Toronto might stomach defenders who aren’t skaters/playmakers if they have bite.
It also lists Jacob Trouba as a question—would he come to Canada if Werenski and Matthews were going for it? It puts Mario Ferraro and Andrew Peeke into the discussion, along with Nick Jensen and Ian Cole.
Then the piece narrows to a specific pick for the sake of projection: Peeke. The reasoning offered is concrete—Peeke is six-foot-three. 28 years old. and averaged 19:30 per game for the Bruins while getting stuffed in the D-zone and fed top competition. The numbers “weren’t great,” but the rationale is that he kills penalties and checks.
That leads to a sketched defence option:
Werenski – Raddysh
McCabe – Tanev
Ekman-Larsson – Peeke
(Andrae – Danford)
Still, the article keeps returning to cost and timing. It says cap space is a non-issue and claims that if Toronto could get a player like Ferraro, it would be happy to pay—and that Ferraro would be better than Peeke.
Whether the name is Peeke or Ferraro, the piece says the important part right now is the direction decisions are taking.
The other big name moving in the background is Rielly. and this is where the tension gets personal for the article’s storyline. The Rielly situation is “still very much in the air.” The writer isn’t certain you’re immediately better by subtracting him. and suggests Toronto likely isn’t automatically better that way. But the piece also argues it doesn’t mean the decision shouldn’t be made.
The baggage with Rielly is presented as heavy: he’s seen too much, handled big minutes, responsibility, and leadership. Relegating him to a bottom pair is described as almost embarrassing given the skill set. Unlike Carlo—where the trade is framed as a choice—the argument here is that trading Rielly might need to happen because it needs to happen.
None of this exists in isolation. The article places Toronto’s choices inside a league where every team is trying to do its own version of the same complicated thing. You can’t cherry-pick every desired part.
So the story lands on the desk of GM John Chayka and his special advisor Mats Sundin. The piece says the D-corps already looks better and still has room to get better. The problem is how much better—and what cost—Toronto fans are holding their breath to find out.
If anything drastic is coming, the expectation is that it will arrive in the week ahead as the Leafs push toward July 1 and the next wave of moves.
Toronto Maple Leafs NHL defence Chris Tanev Darren Raddysh Brandon Carlo Emil Andrae Morgan Rielly Zach Werenski July 1 free agency John Chayka Mats Sundin Emil Andrae trade Troy Stetcher Phillippe Myers Craig Berube Matthew Knies Easton Cowan