#toronto-maple-leafs

#toronto-maple-leafs

Great teammate,

The Vancouver Canucks sent their captain to the Minnesota Wild for an eye-watering haul. The Canucks essentially got four first-round picks as the return featured three players selected in the first round plus a future first-round selection. So, the question begs: How does the Quinn Hughes trade affect the Toronto Maple Leafs? The short answer is: Not much. This trade mainly affects the balance of power in the Western Conference. The Wild will now move into a whole different category of contention.

Depending on where Hughes lands, there could be serious implications for the Maple Leafs. If Hughes goes to the Detroit Red Wings, the Leafs could be seriously impacted. But beyond Hughes' potential landing spot, an interesting question comes to mind: Could the Toronto Maple Leafs use the Quinn Hughes trade as a template for a possible Auston Matthews deal? Questions regarding the Maple Leafs potentially trading Auston Matthews have not been foreign to the team.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been on a roll lately, having won four of their past five games to improve their season record to 14-11-4. During that stretch, Toronto has outscored their opponents 19-6 backed by some solid defense and goaltending in the process. In doing so, the Maple Leafs have pulled to within three points of a playoff spot and five points from the Atlantic Division lead in the standings.

Yes, Calle Jarnkrok hadn't played in awhile, and it's not ideal for someone making $2.1 million AAV to be sitting out so much, but that's not Robertson's fault. There's no world where Jarnkrok should be getting minutes over Robertson. The tough part is with the way Berube has the lines made up, Robertson got pushed down to the fourth line, and eventually out of the lineup.

Just like that, after collecting nine of the last 10 available points, the Maple Leafs are three points back of the top spot in the Atlantic Division (with a game in hand on Detroit). The winning run includes three impressive wins over Florida, Carolina, and Tampa Bay, in which the Leafs - once among the leakiest teams in the league this season - allowed just two goals combined.

It almost worked out better that the guy kind of caught him a little bit. He (Rielly) just stays with it, second and third effort on it, and put it in. Obviously, he's got one of the best releases on our team, but it worked out nicely there. He was able to sell the goalie with the way the play worked out, and he stayed with it. It ended up being a huge goal.

Any clarity on Stolarz? Berube: "There's actually not right now. He's still not on the ice, so I'm not sure yet where he is at." On Woll: "He's progressing the right way. Like I said, it's probably going to be this week." Tanev has scheduled meeting with Dr. on Wednesday. #Leafs- Terry Koshan 🇺🇦 (@koshtorontosun) December 7, 2025

The last three wins have been really tough games to assess from an analytical point of view, given that the Leafs have built multi-goal leads early in all of them. The five-on-five high-danger chances are 55% in Toronto's favour despite the shot attempts being just 37% in their favour, and they've out-scored the opposition 8-1 from the high-danger areas. With an anaemic power play contributing nothing, they've scored on a ridiculous 22% of their five-on-five shots (13 goals on 59 shots).

"From top to bottom I think everyone was doing a great job," Knies said. "A lot of key blocks, good special teams. Yeah, I think everyone played well."