Maple Leafs depth chart 2.0: Life after Marner gets complicated

The Maple Leafs roster for the 2025-26 season feels unfinished at the moment.

That may change by the time that training camp rolls around in September.

How do things stand today in a post-Mitch Marner world? Its complicated.

Forwards Brad Treliving made no secret of his desire to add a top-six forward of some kind to help replace Mitch Marner (and maybe play with Auston Matthews) and implied that it would have to come through trade, with the free-agent pool thinning down basically down to nothing.

Who might the front office consider? Advertisement Two Pittsburgh wingers, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell, make some sense Rust especially given his long-time fit next to another top-line centre in Sidney Crosby.

Rust, who plays a spirited game that would suit a Craig Berube-coached team, has three years remaining on his contract at a cap hit of $5.1 million.

Rust has scored 152 goals over the last six seasons, 44th-most in the NHL, and just two shy of Marner.

The Penguins are run by former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas and are in the midst of trying to build up their pile of young assets.

Whether the Leafs have enough of those young assets to satisfy a trade for Rust, or even Rakell, is uncertain.

Any conversation would presumably have to start with Easton Cowan, who was drafted by Wes Clark, whos now the Penguins vice-president of player personnel.

Cowan alone surely isnt enough and the Leafs lack not just a quantity of draft picks but quality too.

Their best pick in the next two years is a second rounder ...

in 2027.

And thats going to be one obstacle in any trade conversation: Can the Leafs put together a package thats enticing enough to an opposing team? Another obstacle: How many teams, save for rebuilding Pittsburgh, are looking to move a top-six forwards? Maybe its a problem-ish contract? Jonathan Marchessault, for instance, is 34 and has four years left on his deal with Nashville ($5.5 million cap hit).

Thats a lot of term for someone who is small, turning 35 in December, and coming off a 56-point season.

But he could be a nice fit next to Matthews in the short term.

Treliving and his team could seek teams with forwards nearing the end of their contracts who may, or may not, be long for those organizations.

If they could get him on the cheap, would another Predator and familiar face, Michael Bunting, merit another look? Bunting is entering the last year of his contract ($4.5 million cap hit), found a comfy fit next to Matthews once upon a time, and played for Mike van Ryn, the Leafs assistant coach, way back in the AHL.

Advertisement Buntings time in Toronto ended in frustrating fashion and he hasnt looked, or performed, like the same player since.

Alex Tuch, a two-time 30-goal scorer, is up after the coming season ($4.75 million cap hit) in Buffalo.

Would Dallas have any interest in getting off the last two seasons of Tyler Seguin ($9.85 million cap hit) with a new Jason Robertson contract coming down the line, potentially? Jaden Schwartz has one year left with Seattle.

Briefly a Leaf, Jared McCann has this year and next.

Weve already covered centres who could give the Leafs a boost .

Treliving, however, implied that such a transaction was unlikely given the demand at the position.

Theres a world in which the GM cant get what he wants, for one reason or another, and the Leafs enter camp and even the season with this need still lingering.

Which would force Berube, for the time being, to look internally.

Option No.

1 to move onto Matthews right wing is obviously William Nylander.

We know for sure that the Leafs coach isnt a fan of the fit, but that was before, when he had Marner at his disposal.

The Leafs best right winger next season will be Nylander and whether it looks great or not, he and Matthews have been dangerous and dominant over the years in their time together.

In the three seasons before last, the two stars played just under 900 minutes together (minus Marner); the Leafs won 59 percent of the actual goals and 58 percent of the expected goals.

Load up that way though and the second and third lines takes a hit.

Option No.

2: Matias Maccelli.

The Leafs are intrigued with his upside and believe he will make those around him better.

Maccellis vision and passing ability could certainly pair nicely with Matthews and Matthew Knies.

And maybe, with Maccelli here, Berube still loads up with Nylander two or three times a game.

Advertisement Playing in this spot would be a huge leap in competition for Maccelli.

The 24-year-old played mostly alongside Lawson Crouse and Nick Bjugstad in Arizona and Utah, the kind of line that would have attracted second and third defensive pairs and third and fourth lines.

Play with Matthews and hed be getting the toughest competition every night.

Option No.

3: Max Domi.

It went bad just about anywhere he played last season, including a brief stint with Matthews.

But there was a very strong connection between the two close pals in the spring of 2024.

Still, Domis poor decision-making and defending could really cause problems playing this high in the lineup.

Where exactly does Domi fit in this lineup if its not here? He wont be the 3C any longer with Nicolas Roy around.

It doesnt make much sense either to stick Domi on Roys wing given how that line is going to be used buried in defensive-zone faceoffs.

Should Berube have Domi centre a 3B line that can maybe score the odd goal? And if so, whos playing on it? Would the Leafs coach try Domi on Tavares left wing instead, where he started in each of the previous two seasons? Is Domi still on the team in the fall? Longer-shot options to play with Matthews and Knies could include Calle Jarnkrok, who clicked with Matthews once upon a time; Bobby McMann, who occasionally replaced Knies on that line last season; and maybe even Easton Cowan, at least in a training camp tryout sort of fashion.

Cowan looked far from ready for the NHL last fall.

Hes still only 20 and has yet to play a game above junior.

The Leafs coach will have to figure out who fits best on a defensive grind line with Roy.

The 28-year-old was mostly, thanks to top-notch depth, a fourth-line centre in Vegas, frequently playing alongside the heavy combo of Keegan Kolesar and Tanner Pearson.

Berube might want to try to replicate the heavy feel of that line somehow.

Advertisement With his size and speed, McMann is one obvious possibility.

And really, if hes not playing in the top six, McMann has to be here.

He had a poor playoffs, but hes still one of the Leafs nine best forwards.

Incumbent forward Steven Lorentz could be another, though he was almost exclusively a fourth liner last season.

Other options include Jarnkrok and maybe even Scott Laughton.

The Leafs do need that group to score a bit.

Roy and McMann should be able to chip in 30-40 goals combined wherever they end up.

(Roy had 15 goals last season; McMann scored 20.) As this roster stands right now, goal-scoring looks like it could be an area of real need, especially if Matthews doesnt bounce back to his Hart Trophy(ish) form.

Berube will need to determine a purpose for the remaining bottom-six unit.

Is it a group thats supposed to score, or try anyway? Would it make sense to reconnect Domi, McMann, and if hes still here, Nick Robertson? That line largely flunked its time together last season.

Is it a line thats supposed to provide energy? Is that why the Leafs brought in Michael Pezzetta? The Pezzetta signing seems like the Leafs trying to replicate what the Florida Panthers had on their fourth line in Jonah Gadjovich, that of the rambunctious, physical winger who wont bring any offence.

I struggle to see Pezzetta playing much of a role.

He logged less than five minutes in 10 of his 25 games with Montreal last season and feels like a younger (and not nearly as effective) replacement for Ryan Reaves.

Is there any way that David Kampf sticks around? Though he lost his job to Laughton last spring, hes a better fit in the middle.

Defence As of now, this is precisely the same group that finished last season.

Its a group that defended hard and possessed the length that Treliving prizes, but also a group that wasnt especially helpful to the offensive attack.

And that could be detrimental to a forward group that no longer has Marner.

Advertisement Thats what makes the prospect of trying to deal Morgan Rielly a little perplexing.

Rielly didnt have a good first season under Berube, and he has five years remaining on his contract.

But hes also the best source of offence and puck-moving, by far, on the Leafs defence.

He also scored four times in 13 playoff games last spring.

Rielly also has a full no-movement clause.

So if the Leafs ever wanted to move him, they would have to convince him to go and that seems an unlikely prospect.

A right-shooting defenceman with an appealing contract, Brandon Carlo still looks like the most logical trade piece on the back end.

Move him, though, and the Leafs will once again need to procure a proper partner for Rielly.

The front office also paid a lot to acquire Carlo in the first place Fraser Minten and picks in the first and fourth rounds.

The Leafs could have kept everyone here and still tried to add one more playmaker/puck mover in free agency.

Those options appear gone.

Jeff Petry might have made some sense as a steady third-pairing type.

He signed in Florida.

Special teams PP1 : Matthews, Nylander, Knies, Tavares, Rielly(?) Who quarterbacks the No.

1 unit in Marners absence? At the moment, its probably Rielly.

He lost his gig on PP1 last season but obviously has a lengthy history with that unit.

It might not be the worst thing to re-install him there in the hopes that, with added puck touches and point production, his confidence rises.

How much worse will this unit be without Marner, who led the team in power-play points last season? PP2 : McMann, Domi, Maccelli, Ekman-Larsson, Jarnkrok/Robertson/Roy Roy was actually fifth in power-play minutes among Golden Knight forwards last season.

He got fairly regular minutes there in previous seasons too, albeit without much in the way of actual production (seven power-play goals in the last four seasons).

Advertisement Marc Savard could position Roy, all 6-foot-4 of him, in front of the net and hope that he can bang in the odd goal in the rare PP2 minutes.

PK1 : Tanev, McCabe, Matthews, Knies Do the Leafs still want Matthews killing penalties? Berube seemed to like it last season, so lets say yes for now.

And why not have him do it alongside a different linemate in Knies? This is another area of potential falloff in the post-Marner world.

He was, by far, the teams top penalty-killing forward.

PK2 : Carlo, Benoit, Laughton, Roy/Lorentz/Jarnkrok/Kampf Roy grabbed more PP opportunity over his years in Vegas than PK time.

He figures to play more of a role here alongside the combination of Laughton, Lorentz, Jarnrkok (if hes still around), and Kampf (if hes still around).

The fact that hes a right-shot gives the Leafs a faceoff option there they havent had in recent years.

It will be interesting to see how this group changes with Derek Lalonde at the controls.

The Leafs, with Marner, had the 17th-ranked PK during the regular season and fourth-best in the playoffs.

Goalies Nothing to report here as of yet.

The Leafs have yet to replace Matt Murray, who signed in Seattle, with another experienced No.

3.

The role could just be handed to Dennis Hildeby.

One curiosity: Does Anthony Stolarz enter next season as the No.

1? And what does that even mean, given that he and Joseph Woll figure to split starts evenly once again? Woll will be the higher paid of the two, now that his three-year contract ($3.66 million cap hit), has kicked in.

Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference, and Puck Pedia (Top photo: Claus Andersen / Getty Images).

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