In retrospect the time to move off the Shanaplan was after the 2020-21 season.
Back then, the Toronto Maple Leafs had a dominant regular season in the one-off North Division — it was the COVID-affected 56-game season. They built a 3-1 lead in a best-of-7 series against the overmatched Montreal Canadiens — with no fans in the stands to build pressure — and could have cakewalked to the NHL’s Final Four.
But the fact we can reasonably debate which year was the cone to move on from one of Toronto’s suspect Core Four forwards, plus of course defenseman Morgan Rielly, is proof now — after Toronto’s humiliating 6-1 loss on home ice against the Florida Panthers in Game 7 on Sunday — is too late.
Yet, this is the year where the breakup will ultimately happen. Make no mistake the Leafs’ reckoning will finally happen with the departure of Mitch Marner, Brendan Shanahan, potentially Rielly and John Tavares — and maybe even captain Auston Matthews.
“It’s meant everything,” Marner said of playing in Toronto, even though his lasting image will be another pointless, shotless night where he screamed at his teammates Sunday. “I’ve been forever grateful to be able to wear this maple leaf and be a part of some of the great legends here and be able to wear this jersey. I’ve never taken a day for granted, and I always loved it.”
So unlike postseasons past, Toronto’s verbose fan base will get its metric ton of flesh. But even that won’t be able to shake that familiar feeling that Leafs Nation is clinging to after a promising decade availed nothing but do-or-die defeats.
How Did We Get Here?
It’s a fair question to wonder how a decade can go by in the seeming blink of an eye.
But this time 10 years ago, Shanahan’s inaugural season as president of Toronto’s hockey operation had just expired. He was about to lure Mike Babcock to Toronto with the richest coaching contract in the history of the sport.
It started with such promise after drafting Marner and bottoming out to select Matthews — the belle of the 2016 NHL Draft. The Leafs made the playoffs in Year 1 of the Matthews era — giving the East’s top-seeded Washington Capitals all they would want in a six-game series loss.
After a seven-game loss to the Bruins, they added Tavares as perhaps the biggest free-agent signing in franchise history. They were down 3-1 to the Bruins yet forced a Game 7 in 2018-19 before falling 5-1 in the deciding game to the eventual Eastern Conference champs.
But that’s where things shifted. Aside from enhanced expectations — making the playoffs three straight years and falling short will make any fan base hungry, let alone Toronto’s beast-like appetite for a winner — Marner and Matthews each came off his entry-level contract, and each was paid handsomely with an eight-figure AAV and a no-movement clause.
Plus, even though their paystubs were larger, and the regular-season stats ballooned, the postseasons ended the same. The 2020 and 2021 seasons ended with do-or-die losses to Columbus and Montreal at Scotiabank Arena — ironically in front of no fans.
They then lost in Game 7 in 2022, 2024 and 2025, with a five-game second-round shellacking at the hands of the Panthers in 2023 in between.
Perhaps the irony that Brad Marchand — who tormented the Leafs in Boston before doing so as a member of the Panthers this year — credited the club’s growth while it is on the verge of unraveling explains it all.
“They’re a different team this year,” Marchand said on TNT after Florida’s second 6-1 win in Toronto. “They’re competing at a much different level. That was a very tough series.”
Pressure Looms
When the team reports in September, the new core — or holdovers like coach Craig Berube, general manager Brad Treliving or players like Matthew Knies, William Nylander, Max Domi or others — will spout the same platitudes about a new year or a new culture.
Yet, the ongoing pressure will continue until some Maple Leafs group gets to the third round or (gasp) the Stanley Cup final. The Leafs have famously not won the Cup since 1967, but unlike comparably snake-bitten organizations, they also have not played for the championship since then.
Most remarkably, every Toronto-based pro team around them — the Raptors (2019), Blue Jays (1992 and 1993), Argonauts (nine times) and even Toronto FC (2017) — has won a championship since the Leafs last played for one.
It’s going to take a unique group to persevere past the media and fan expectations. It’s going to require skill and fortitude that the roster — and even the organization — has never had. No Leafs team has scaled even half the mountain since 2002, when they were upset by Paul Maurice’s upstart Carolina Hurricanes in the conference final that year.
“What’s great for the league is hard for the Toronto Maple Leafs and their players,” said Maurice, who ironically has won the Stanley Cup and reached the final three times but never during his 164-game tenure coaching in Toronto. “The passion for the Toronto Maple Leafs and the scrutiny these men are under … there’s a cost to it.
“This is a good team. This is a much-better team than we played two years ago. It’s a much better team than we played 23 years ago in the conference final.”
Yet, there are still somehow believers — those people who are still waiting for the day the Leafs join the Rangers, Red Sox, White Sox, Cubs and many others as jilted fan bases that finally got their taste.
Too-Early Playoff Loss Leaves Maple Leafs Fans In Familiar Situation