3 Leafs Storylines Heading into 2024-25 Season – Hockey Writers – Toronto Maple Leafs

Leafs Nation, it’s almost time for the start of the NHL season—there’s Toronto Maple Leafs preseason hockey on Sunday, September 22nd at 7:00 pm EST.

With so much to look forward to this season, there are so many questions. Did the Maple Leafs do enough this offseason to improve their team? Will Mitch Marner’s contract drama be a distraction? Is Berube the coach who gets the team over the hump?

We will finally begin to be able to answer those questions in just a few weeks. Until then, let’s take a look at some of the biggest news heading into the 2024-25 season for the Maple Leafs.

Youth Movement?

The Maple Leafs are still a playoff contender and thanks to the excellent planning of the previous and current regime, it looks like they may be moving a little further in the youth movement. Whether it’s Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan, Fraser Minten, Cade Webber, Topi Niemelä or Nikita Grebyonkin, this organization has some talent that will be pushing the envelope.

It’s no secret that Cowan and Minten will get the best looks in the NHL during training camp, likely taking part in several preseason games as well. Last season there was a Maple Leafs “kid line” of Cowan, Minten and Knies. However, this season, Berube should separate them and give them more NHL experience on their lines.

Webber is another name that will probably look good at the NHL level. Even though he’s 6-foot-7, he skates like 6-foot-1, and he likes to play the game hard. Although, he may not start in the NHL, he will likely be a candidate for the call-up if there are injuries.

Unproven Goalie Tandem

The goaltending tandem of Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz is unproven, but has plenty of potential. Woll has shown that he can step up to the organization’s biggest moments and not be swayed. The only real concern is, he is struggling to stay healthy. If he can stay healthy, it looks like he will be the starting goaltender for the start of the 2024-25 NHL season. Last season, when Ilya Samsonov lost in net, Woll ran a little bit and did well, but unfortunately he got injured and missed important time due to a sprained ankle. In 25 games, he had a 12-11-1 record with a 2.94 goals against average (GAA) and a .907 save percentage (SV%).

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As for Stolarz, he is a Stanley Cup champion, won last season with the Florida Panthers. However, he has yet to become an everyday NHL starter in his career. The most games he has started in seven years is 24, which was last season. Before that, it was 23 in 2021-22 with the Anaheim Ducks. He has been consistent since his debut, however. In 27 games last season, he started 24 and had a 16-7-4 record with a 2.03 GAA and .925 SV%.

If he and Woll can be as good as they were last season, they should be able to close the crease for the Maple Leafs. But if all else fails, they have Matt Murray as their third string goalie.

Marner & Tavares’ Contract Saga

The last big issue and the biggest of all has to be the contract situation for both Marner and John Tavares. Both are entering the final year of their contracts and that is likely to weigh heavily on the team, especially with the media. It won’t be bad for the team, and for the players if they can both go out and start the season well. This may give rise to the “they are playing for a new contract” narrative. If so, they signed extensions during the season, they need to make sure they don’t have a big change in their production because that will cause the media to be full of them.

Accordingly, the Maple Leafs get Tavares’ contract done during the season. Somewhere around $3 million for three seasons. The hope is that he will take a domestic discount to stay with the team, and the lower salary will come with a reduced role over those three years. As for Marner, it might be best to wait until after the season. Maple Leafs manager Brad Treliving will see what kind of season and playoffs he has before making a decision to commit seven and eight seasons and $12+ million to Marner.

The Marner extension shouldn’t be a shock signing. If they wait and things don’t look promising, they could pull off a deal like the Calgary Flames did with Matthew Tkachuk. They allowed him and his agent to find other teams that would pay the money he wanted and then they made a mark and traded with them and brought back quality goods. Treliving seems to be the type of GM that never panics. In fact, he is the one who made the Tkachuk sign and trade. He has been there before and may end up in the same position this season. But he’ll need to take a good, long look at the value of Marner’s camp and his team and decide if he wants to cash in on the years or trade up.

In the end, it will all come down to how the team performs this season.