MLHS’ Anthony Petrielli joined The FAN Morning Show to discuss the Maple Leafs’ outlook entering the 2026-27 season, the health of Auston Matthews and Chris Tanev, Toronto’s goaltending tandem, Gavin McKenna’s ideal role, and the organization’s approach to discussing the pressures of playing in T.O.
On his level of optimism about the new-look Maple Leafs:
I think there is reason for optimism. You can also look at the lineup and still see some holes.
Even though they’ve added Darren Raddysh — and hopefully Chris Tanev is healthy — who rounds out the top four? You could probably look at it and say they are still missing a quality defenseman. They might also need another quality forward — if not a top-six forward, then a top-nine forward.
But all in all, there is genuine reason for optimism. It is exciting, obviously, that they were able to win the lottery and draft Gavin McKenna. Everyone should be excited about that.
Ultimately, I look at the team and say that if they stay healthy, they’ll be good and competitive. But staying healthy is a huge “if,” particularly for some of their key guys in Chris Tanev and Auston Matthews.
If those guys stay healthy, they’ll be good. But what are the odds of both of them staying healthy?
Of the two, it is certainly Tanev I’m more curious about. You’re hopeful Matthews — who says he feels great and sounds like he is in a good place — can return to being the vintage Auston Matthews again this season.
That is obviously a massive variable and a domino the Leafs need to fall their way for this to be a bounce-back year after missing the playoffs last season.
On Sergei Bobrovsky’s importance and how the goaltending tandem could work:
He is a goaltender, so, to that degree, of course he is going to be pretty pivotal one way or the other.
It is interesting, though. Bobrovsky has played over 50 games in eight of the past nine seasons, and the one season when he didn’t was the shortened COVID season.
If you said he is going to play 50 games and Anthony Stolarz is going to play the rest — which is 34 games now that the season is expanding to 84 — I would probably say Stolarz will post a better save percentage in those 34 games than Bobrovsky will in his 50.
It is a weird situation because one of the benefits of Bobrovsky is that he plays so much, which will allow Stolarz not to play that much. But they really need Stolarz. They need him to play over 30 games because, if he does, I think they are going to receive a really good 30-plus games from him.
He still has to be one of the best 1B goalies in the league. We just know he can’t be the 1A and carry the workload.
What other team looks at its 1B and says, “That guy will probably post a better save percentage than our starter?” It is a strange situation, but you can see the tandem working.
Even if Bobrovsky is slightly below average, if he sets the table for Stolarz to come in and do his thing for a good chunk of the season, it could still work. Thirty-four out of 84 games isn’t 50 percent, but it is pretty close.
It would make a big difference. They missed Stolarz last season, and that was a huge part of what happened.
Let’s also not forget that around this time last year — roughly a week after media day — Joseph Woll disappeared from the team. That was one of the tone-setting developments of the season: “Where is this guy? What just happened?”
On how the Leafs should integrate Gavin McKenna into the lineup:
Do they start him straight up on the top line? It is a big ask of an 18-year-old.
There is plenty of insulation around him. It is a veteran team with two other first-overall picks in the group. But McKenna is in a unique situation for a first-overall pick.
Usually, these players get drafted and go to terrible teams in the middle of a rebuild. It allows them to make mistakes and learn. You just play the guy and say, “Whatever happens, happens. We know we’re going to be bad for a while, and eventually, we’ll figure it out. This one player can’t turn it around by himself.”
The Leafs aren’t in that situation. It is fair for them to expect to make the playoffs. There are a lot of quality players on this team, they spend to the cap, and they expect to be good.
With that comes less tolerance for the usual growing pains. They can’t simply throw McKenna on the top line and shrug when he makes 18-year-old plays. He is very good and will make plenty of excellent plays, but he is also going to make 18-year-old plays, particularly defensively. On a team with playoff expectations, you aren’t as understanding of that.
The Leafs brought in a bunch of checking forwards, and they will surely free Matthews up compared to how he was used in previous years. But the idea that Matthews suddenly won’t play against the opposition’s top players consistently isn’t realistic.
They play Montreal in the opener. Martin St. Louis isn’t going to say, “I guess we won’t use Nick Suzuki against Auston Matthews this year because the Leafs signed Teddy Blueger and Colton Sissons.” Matthews is still going to receive a steady dose of Suzuki and whichever wingers are on that line — probably Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky.
Again, that is a big ask of McKenna: “Go play with Matthews in that matchup, go head-to-head, and be ready to help us make the playoffs.”
I’m hoping they ease him in somewhat. Having said that, I think he will be good enough almost immediately that I would like to see him with John Tavares. To me, that makes the most sense.
Tavares scored 31 goals last season and led the team in goals. It is not a bad option. This isn’t Mats Sundin at the end of his Leafs tenure, when it was basically, “You’re either playing with Sundin or Matt Stajan.” There isn’t that level of drop-off here. Tavares is still a quality player, and he was also a first-overall pick, so he will understand what McKenna is going through.
Anyone over 30 or 32 years old knew who John Tavares was before he entered the NHL. He was considered a prodigy and was probably more highly touted at the time than McKenna.
He might uniquely understand McKenna even more than Matthews, who was playing in a relatively obscure situation before entering the NHL. Matthews was heavily touted, but he wasn’t playing in the Canadian market, and it wasn’t the same kind of environment.
There are many parallels Tavares can draw from, and he can be supportive. I think he would be a quality linemate for McKenna. It puts McKenna in an ideal position where he is somewhat sheltered but still playing with top players.
McKenna is too good to play with players who can’t think the game at the proper level for him. Tavares feels like the sweet spot.
Ultimately, some of it will be dictated by how good and ready McKenna is. If he comes into camp and is unbelievable, he might not give them a choice. It is just a matter of when he does it.
On Mats Sundin’s positive messaging about playing in Toronto and the organization pushing back against the pressure narrative:
It has been such a nonsense narrative for the past few years.
Some of it probably had something to do with the Florida Panthers constantly talking about the pressure in Toronto and then watching the Leafs wilt against them twice in the playoffs. The story grew legs of its own.
Obviously, Mitch Marner left and couldn’t wait to tell everyone about it — at least until Vegas lost in the Stanley Cup Final. Then, suddenly, he couldn’t. He also spent his entire summer in Muskoka, but that is neither here nor there.
The pressure narrative became a thing of its own, so it is nice to hear the organization push back against it. They didn’t do a good job of that under Brendan Shanahan. Brad Treliving was nowhere to be found when it came to changing the narrative.
They allowed it to fester and become a major topic. Publicly, it felt like they either didn’t want to address it or almost agreed with it to some degree.
Talk is ultimately cheap. We’ll see what happens when the puck drops and the team starts facing adversity. As the famous saying goes, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.
We’ll see how it plays out, but the messaging has been refreshing so far.
To me, it started when they won the draft lottery. You may remember Sundin being asked that night about the first-overall pick, pressure, and playing in Toronto. He cut off the premise. He basically said, “Being a Leaf is awesome. It is such a great privilege. I don’t have time for this conversation about pressure.”
That is what it should be. There are a ton of positives to playing in Toronto that you won’t find in pretty much any other market in the league. You also have to be honest about it. You can’t say, “There are all of these awesome things, but when things go poorly, the fans should stay quiet and stop caring.” That isn’t a realistic scenario.
I can’t think of any market in any sport that works that way, and in hockey, you can’t even compare Toronto to the other markets.
You are going to have to take some bad at times. There is no question about it. But the potential reward is one hundred or one thousand times greater.
Either you want it or you don’t. For now, at least, it is nice to hear management embracing it and saying, “This is great. There is nothing to complain about.”
On what he wants to hear from Morgan Rielly at media day:
To some degree, it’s media day, so what is he really going to say? “I’m happy to be here.”
But I do wonder. He has always been a little more forthright compared to a lot of the other guys we’ve grown accustomed to. I understand that media speak is involved in general, but we haven’t heard from him at all throughout this entire ordeal, and his name was certainly out there.
Beyond that, I think we’re going to get a lot of platitudes. But he is the one guy I’m actually somewhat interested in hearing from.
