Previewing the Maple Leafs’ 2025-26 Depth Chart: The Defense

We round out our 2025-26 depth chart series with the Maple Leafs’ blue line, which GM Brad Treliving has spent a lot of time remaking in his first two years on the job. 

Parts 1 and 2 of the 2025-26 Depth Chart series:

• Left and Right Wingers
• Center and Goalies

Left Defense

I’m not sure if it’s controversial to list Jake McCabe over Morgan Rielly at the top of the left defense depth chart, but it shouldn’t be. McCabe led all Leafs blueliners in time on ice per game in both the regular season and playoffs while playing a primary matchup role essentially the entire season. He turns 32 in October, but he was rewarded with a five-year extension that kicks in at the start of this season. Of note, with the cap rising after McCabe signed the deal, he likely left quite a bit of money on the table in a year when players like Ryan Lindgren and Cody Ceci secured just about the same AAV.

While McCabe represents great value for the time being, on the flip side, there is Morgan Rielly listed second on the left side alone — Chris Tanev is also better than him overall — despite Rielly’s status as the highest-paid defenseman on the team. 

Presumably, Rielly will receive an expanded opportunity this season. With Mitch Marner departed, Rielly should get first crack on the top power-play unit, which automatically would increase his production and probably help his overall game by way of more puck touches. Plus — and perhaps more importantly — he will, in all likelihood, play with a much more stable partner in either Brandon Carlo or Tanev, rather than last season’s rotating cast of partners that included a large stretch of time with Phillippe Myers. 

From there, I have listed OEL on the left side. This will likely raise eyebrows, knowing he’s probably going to play the right side (as he did through the playoffs last spring). But it is more of an indictment of their right-handed defense options than it is a nod to OEL’s ability to play his offside. All things being equal, OEL would ideally play the left; like 99% of defensemen in the league, he’s better on his strong side. Just because he’s passable on the right doesn’t make it his ideal spot or his permanent spot on the depth chart — much like last summer’s conversation about Jake McCabe. 

After blowing expectations out of the water in his first year in Toronto, Benoit experienced a much more up-and-down second season in 2024-25. His ice time dropped, and he spent a lot more time in his own end, but he still managed to win his minutes 44-34 at five-on-five. In the playoffs, he manufactured a few key moments where he elevated his game, including scoring an overtime winner. The physicality and commitment to sacrificing his body are there, but he needs to continue working on his play with the puck on his stick. There is legitimate competition gunning for his lineup spot.

The first of which could be Henry Thrun, another left-handed defenseman who is 6’2 and offers more mobility. He had a tough go of things in San Jose, but we say this until we’re blue in the face: take a defenseman’s play on a terrible team with a grain of salt. Thrun would also represent the Leafs‘ youngest defenseman if he were in the lineup.

Thrun will have legitimate competition not just above him, but below him. Dakota Mermis battled through a rollercoaster 2024-25 season, breaking his jaw, getting claimed off waivers, and then returning to the Leafs via a subsequent waiver claim. He managed to get into a few NHL games and acquitted himself well. The Leafs clearly rate Mermis; they re-signed the 31-year-old for two years and a decent chunk of change ($775,00 and then $850,000 on a one-way deal).

The Leafs are in a similar situation with the next left defenseman on the depth chart, Marshall Rifai, whose two-year contract signed a year ago is about to kick in and will pay him $775,000 regardless of whether he’s in the NHL or AHL.

Those contracts should help deter waiver interest, but chances are the Leafs don’t want to be spending this much money on veterans playing in the AHL. If nothing else, it also blocks ice time for the developing younger players, such as the next two defensemen listed, Cade Webber and John Prokop. Both came from college with some pedigree — Webber won defensive defenseman of the year, while Prokop earned a Hobey Baker nomination — but both will need to play very well to warrant call-up consideration. 

This is a deep group that offers versatility and some quality, but it lacks a stud and really needs Morgan Rielly to play better. 

Right Defense

The right side of the Leafs’ defense offers similar sentiments to the left, albeit with less depth and with a quality prospect (Ben Danford) who will be looking to make the Team Canada World Junior roster this Christmas (but has extremely low odds of cracking the Leafs’ roster this season).

Chris Tanev came exactly as advertised and was an excellent shutdown defenseman. The only question marks surround his age and durability. How long can his body hold up, and how long can he continue to perform this well? Tanev turns 36 this December. Otherwise, we all know what he is, and it’s really good.

The biggest room for improvement within the Leafs’ right defense comes from Brandon Carlo. Acquired at the trade deadline for a big price — one of the Leafs’ best prospects and a first-rounder — he’s still signed for two more years and turns 29 in November.

At times, Carlo’s value was evident; he’s massive, he gets in the way defensively, he can penalty kill, and he can clear the net. But he needs to be a lot better, as he spent far too much time in his own end and didn’t win his minutes, even in the absence of a top matchup role. With the trade well behind him and the opportunity to start with the team from the beginning of camp, the hope is that Carlo settles in and regains his form from a few years ago. He is capable, but he has to show it.

After Tanev and Carlo, the rest of the group is fairly slim pickings. Philippe Myers was a fine depth defenseman last season, but the Leafs have several similar defenseman higher up the depth chart, so he’d have to really show out to beat them for a roster spot and become a regular. The Leafs did sign Myers to a multi-year deal in part to avoid losing him on waivers, but he is in a battle to stay in the NHL. 

Next up is Matt Benning, who has one year remaining on a $1.25 million contract. There’s almost no chance Benning would be claimed at his current salary, but there is a reason he received the four-year deal originally, as he was once a quite solid third-pairing NHL defenseman.

The 31-year-old’s career has been beset by injuries. He played just 14 games two seasons ago before season-ending hip surgery, and while he played in 48 games between the Sharks and Marlies last season, he didn’t exactly leap off the page as ready to return to the NHL. Maybe a healthy summer of training heading into a contract year changes things — and I’m open to the idea that he could quietly make camp interesting — but it would be difficult to justify ranking Benning anything higher than fourth among the RD group and 10th overall on the Leafs’ defense depth chart.

Finally, there’s William Villeneuve, who turned in a strong 2024-25 season with the Marlies and signed a one-year extension. There are a lot of tools to like with the 23-year-old: he’s reasonable with the puck (40 points in 55 games with the Marlies), he’s 6’2, he’s mobile, and his game is generally trending up. In a vacuum, you’d like a look at him with the Leafs at some point, but in the big picture, there are a lot of defensemen with more experience for Villeneuve to leapfrog.

We didn’t include OEL on the right, as noted above, but if we did, he’d rank third. Ahead of him are Tanev — a bona fide top-four defenseman — and Carlo, who can be a top-four but will need to play better. OEL at least gives them another credible NHL defenseman who can play the right side, and the left side has more depth.

The Leafs’ defense as a whole lacks a stud, and while they’ve done well to put together a defense by committee in lieu of one, ideally, there would be an offensive game-changer in this group to support its high-end shutdown pairing.