Toronto Maple Leafs Standings: Where They Sit Now

Toronto Maple Leafs Standings: The Season That Went Sideways

Okay, let’s just say it out loud. The 2025-26 season was rough. Not “we lost in the first round again” rough. We’re talking the kind of rough that gets a general manager fired in March and a head coach fired in May. If you’ve been avoiding the Toronto Maple Leafs standings all year because they hurt to look at, no judgment here. A lot of us did the same thing.

But here’s the deal. You can’t understand where this team is headed without staring at the numbers first. And honestly? The numbers tell a wild story. One year the Leafs are sitting on top of the Atlantic. The next, they’re out of the playoffs for the first time since 2017, watching the postseason from the couch like the rest of us.

So let me walk you through it. What happened, why it happened, and what the new front office did about it. Grab a coffee. This one’s got layers.

What the Toronto Maple Leafs Standings Actually Looked Like

Let’s rip the band-aid off. The Leafs finished 32-36-14. That’s 78 points, good for eighth in the Atlantic Division and 15th in the Eastern Conference. Eighth. In their own division. For a team that spent most of the last decade as a regular-season powerhouse, that’s a gut punch.

And it’s not like they were close to a wild-card spot either. This wasn’t a “if only they’d won two more games in April” situation. They were nowhere near it.

Here’s the part that really stings. The year before, in 2024-25, Toronto went 52-26-4 for 108 points and won the Atlantic Division outright. So the drop from one season to the next? A franchise-record 30-point decline. Thirty points. That’s not a slump. That’s a cliff.

Take a look at the year-over-year comparison, because it says everything.

That goal differential swing is the one that jumps out at me. They went from +37 to -46. That’s an 83-goal swing in a single year. You don’t see that very often, and when you do, it usually means something went badly wrong on a bunch of fronts at once. Which, spoiler, it did.

Oh, and one more number that’ll make you wince. The Leafs gave up a league-leading 2,660 shots against. Their goalies were under siege basically every night. More on that mess in a second.

So What On Earth Happened?

Good question. And there’s no single villain here. It was more like a bunch of small fires that turned into one big one.

Let’s start with the elephant in the room. Mitch Marner is gone. He left in a sign-and-trade to the Vegas Golden Knights before the season even started, and losing a point-a-game winger who’d been a fixture in Toronto for years left a hole nobody quite filled. Marner racked up 102 points the season prior. You don’t just replace that with a shrug and a fourth-liner.

Then there’s the blue line. The defence, to put it kindly, sprung leaks. Injuries piled up, most notably to Anthony Stolarz and Chris Tanev, and when your netminder and your steadiest defensive defenceman are both in and out of the lineup, the whole structure wobbles. Those 2,660 shots against didn’t come from nowhere.

The scoring dried up too. William Nylander still led the team with 79 points (49 assists), and John Tavares potted a team-high 31 goals, but the depth just wasn’t there. When your top guys are carrying the offence and the supporting cast goes quiet, teams key on your stars and the whole thing grinds to a halt.

Here’s a quick rundown of the biggest culprits, because sometimes a list just lands better:

• The Marner departure left a top-line hole that never got patched properly.
• A leaky defensive core surrendered more shots than any team in the league.
• Injuries in net and on the back end wrecked any hope of consistency.
• Thin scoring depth meant too much weight on Nylander and Tavares.
• A -46 goal differential that basically summed up the whole miserable ride.

You know what the frustrating part is? This roster still had real talent. Auston Matthews. Nylander. Morgan Rielly. These aren’t scrubs. But talent alone doesn’t win you hockey games when the structure around it is falling apart. And that’s the harsh lesson from this whole season.

The Front Office Cleanout Nobody Saw Coming (Well, Maybe Some Did)

When a season goes this sideways, heads roll. And boy, did they.

Brad Treliving got fired as GM on March 30, 2026, before the season had even wrapped. That’s how you know ownership had seen enough. A few weeks later, on May 13, head coach Craig Berube was let go too. Berube had won a Cup with St. Louis and brought a certain hard-nosed identity to the bench, but when the Toronto Maple Leafs standings look like that, results are the only thing that matter. Fair or not, that’s the business.

So who’s running the show now? Enter John Chayka. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment named him the 19th general manager in franchise history on May 3, 2026. Chayka’s an interesting hire. He’s only 37, and he previously ran the Arizona Coyotes from 2016 to 2020, where he built a reputation as one of the more analytics-forward executives in the league. Love him or not, the guy thinks differently. And this team needed a different way of thinking.

MLSE also brought in a franchise legend to lend some gravity to the whole thing. Mats Sundin signed on as Senior Executive Adviser, Hockey Operations. Having a beloved former captain in the building doesn’t fix your penalty kill, sure, but it sends a message. This is serious. We’re rebuilding the culture, not just the roster.

Then came the coach. On June 17, Jim Hiller became the 41st head coach in Leafs history. And here’s the fun wrinkle. Hiller isn’t a stranger to Toronto. He was an assistant here from 2015 to 2019 under Mike Babcock, so he already knows guys like Matthews, Nylander, and Rielly. Most recently he ran the bench for the Los Angeles Kings. His mandate is pretty clear: tighten this thing up defensively. The Leafs were dead last, 31st in goals against, last season. The Kings under Hiller were seventh. That’s the fix he’s being brought in to make.

And in a move that made every old-school Battle of Ontario fan do a double-take, Hiller hired Daniel Alfredsson as one of his assistant coaches. Yes, that Alfredsson. The Ottawa Senators icon who used to be public enemy number one at Scotiabank Arena. Hockey’s a funny sport. The villain of your childhood ends up behind your bench two decades later. Toronto sports, man.

McKenna, Bobrovsky, and Betting Big

Here’s the silver lining to a season this bad. You land near the top of the draft. And the Leafs didn’t just land near the top. They won the draft lottery and took Gavin McKenna first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.

McKenna’s the real deal, the kind of generational prospect who’s expected to compete for the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year right out of the gate. For a fanbase that’s been starved for young, cheap, elite talent, that’s about as good as it gets after a lost season. Sometimes rock bottom hands you a gift.

Chayka didn’t stop there. He went to work on the roster in a hurry, and the biggest swing was in net. On July 1, the Leafs signed Sergei Bobrovsky to a three-year deal. Bob’s a two-time Stanley Cup champion and a future Hall of Famer, though there’s a catch, and it’s a big one. He turns 38 in September, and he’s coming off the worst statistical season of his career. He went 27-23-1 with a 3.07 goals-against average and a .877 save percentage in 52 games with Florida.

So it’s a gamble. Was last year the team in front of him, or was it age catching up? Toronto’s betting on the former. And there’s some logic to it, because Bobrovsky gets reunited with Anthony Stolarz, who was his backup during Florida’s Cup runs. On paper, that’s a solid one-two punch in the crease. On paper.

The rest of the summer was a full-on renovation. Here’s who’s coming and going:

Darren Raddysh is a name worth circling. The Leafs got him in a sign-and-trade with Tampa Bay, and he’s one of the better power-play quarterbacks in the league. That addresses a real need on the back end, especially with the man advantage.

The bottom six got a serious makeover too. Chayka added Jack Roslovic from Edmonton, brought in Nick Paul via trade, and signed depth forwards Colton Sissons, Brandon Duhaime, and Teddy Blueger. That’s a lot of face-off ability, penalty killing, and physicality. Are these the guys who put you over the top in a playoff series? Maybe not the difference-makers. But they’re the kind of role players a contender actually needs, and the Leafs have been short on them for years.

On defence, they moved Brandon Carlo to St. Louis for a pair of third-round picks and added depth options like Emil Andrae. And they shipped Joseph Woll to Philadelphia on June 16 to clear the crease for Bobrovsky. Woll had a tough year himself, going 15-16-7, so the change of scenery probably helps everyone.

Reading the Toronto Maple Leafs Standings for 2026-27

So where does all this leave us? The 2026-27 regular season kicks off September 29, and the honest answer is nobody really knows yet. This is a team with a new GM, a new coach, a new starting goalie, a rookie phenom, and a heavily reworked supporting cast. That’s a lot of moving parts.

But if you’re trying to figure out how the Toronto Maple Leafs standings might shake out this year, here’s what I’d keep my eye on:

• Can Bobrovsky turn back the clock? If he’s even league-average, the Leafs are a playoff team. If he’s cooked, it’s a long winter.
• How fast does McKenna adjust? Rookies who can drive offence change everything. If he hits the ground running, the ceiling jumps.
• Does Hiller actually fix the defence? Going from 31st in goals against to respectable is the whole ballgame.
• Do Matthews and Nylander stay healthy and productive? The stars still have to be stars.
• Can that new bottom six chip in without dragging things down? Depth wins games in February.

The Atlantic Division, for what it’s worth, isn’t getting any easier. Buffalo climbed all the way to the top last season, going 50-23-9, and the whole division is a grind. Toronto’s not walking into a soft spot. They’ll have to earn every point.

Look, I’m not going to sit here and promise you the Leafs are back. Nobody can promise that in August. But a team that landed the first overall pick, hired a defence-minded coach, and reshaped half its roster? That’s a team that refused to stand still after getting embarrassed. And in this market, that counts for something.

FAQ

Where did the Leafs finish in the standings in 2025-26?

They finished 32-36-14, eighth in the Atlantic and 15th in the East. That’s 78 points and no playoffs.

How many points did the Leafs drop from the year before?

Thirty. They went from 108 points to 78, a franchise-record single-season decline.

Why did the Leafs miss the playoffs?

A bunch of reasons piled up. Losing Mitch Marner, a leaky defence, injuries in net, and thin scoring depth all combined into a -46 goal differential.

Who’s the new GM and coach?

John Chayka took over as general manager in May, and Jim Hiller was hired as head coach in June. Mats Sundin also came aboard as a senior adviser.

Did the Leafs get the first overall pick?

They sure did. They won the lottery and took Gavin McKenna, who’s a favourite to push for the Calder as top rookie.

What was the biggest offseason signing?

Goalie Sergei Bobrovsky on a three-year deal. He’s a two-time Cup winner, but at 38 he’s a bit of a gamble.

When does the 2026-27 season start?

The regular season opens September 29, so there’s not long to wait before the standings start filling in again.

The Bottom Line

The Toronto Maple Leafs standings from 2025-26 were about as ugly as this franchise has looked in a long time. Eighth place, a 30-point collapse, and pink slips handed out to the GM and coach. No sugarcoating that.

But you know what? Sometimes a season falls apart badly enough that it forces real change instead of the usual tinkering. And that’s kind of what happened here. New voices in the front office. A defence-first coach. A generational rookie. A goalie with a résumé full of hardware. It’s a fresh start, and the Leafs clearly aren’t interested in doing this halfway.

Will it work? Ask me in April. But for the first time in a while, the story around this team is about building something new rather than running back the same script. And after the year they just had, that feels like the right move. The standings will tell us the rest soon enough.

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Oleksandr

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