Trading into the 2026 draft, Pius Suter as a sensible free agency target and a juggernaut mentality: Leaflets

It’s offseason time and there has already been plenty to talk about around the league. The Marchment trade, the Toews signing, even Erik Haula being moved all seem like things that the Maple Leafs should have been in on or at least kept a close eye on. Instead, there is nothing but silence from the organization which isn’t necessarily a bad thing other than the optics of grandiose statements like “changing the DNA” or last summer’s “everything is on the table” would carry a lot more weight if there were actions that showed the Leafs’ front office was going to be hustling in the offseason.

It is now the busiest two weeks of transactions of year and here are some stray thoughts that reflect that:

The 2026 draft is more important that this year

Do I know enough about prospects to definitively say that 2026 has better prospects available in the top 100 than are available this year? Probably not, but I am going to blindly trust those who are saying that 2026 is a draft year to watch and that there is the potential for the Leafs to find higher end talent in the early rounds than they will this season.

Much of what has been focused on as being available by the time the Leafs make their selection are physical players with size that will likely align to bottom six forward positions or bottom pairing defencemen. And honestly, the Leafs could still benefit from some youth and affordability in those spots, so don’t take this preemptive criticism of whomever the Leafs select. Think of it instead of having faith in the Leafs scouting and development department to be able to yield similar results with their later round picks in 2025 and a preference to use 3rd round picks and higher on players that have some top of the lineup potential.

The Leafs’ present second-rounder came as a result of the team trading a 2024 second round pick for the Panthers’ 2025 second rounder and a 2024 seventh round pick. And while the Leafs probably can’t go around advertising that the pick is in play, waiting to see if there is a GM that is smitten with a player still available at 64th overall and making Toronto an offer seems like a preferable outcome than having an earlier pick of the draft depth.

There is also a very strong possibility that the team the Leafs flip picks with won’t win the Stanley Cup next year, and in that case, it would possibly be an earlier pick than 64th overall as well.

Centre of attention

After Auston Matthews there are a lot of question marks at the centre position for the Leafs. As of right now the future of John Tavares in the blue and white is still unknown, Max Domi has continually shown he should not play centre, Scott Laughton looks more like a fourth line option than a 3C, David Kampf isn’t likely part of the new DNA Maple Leafs, and Pontus Holmberg is likely a platooning in option at best if he returns.

The Leafs need centres. Even with Tavares back, the Leafs need centres and there aren’t many available and even fewer available at a reasonable price.

Enter Pius Suter. Suter is a safe option. He’s proven that he can contribute some offence after hitting a career best 25-goals and 46-points for the Canucks but can safely be trusted in the 15-goal, 30-point range in a completely third line capacity, depending on his linemates.

Suter is by no means a faceoff specialist, a hitter, or have the size to make the Leafs bottom six meaner, but what he does come with is a good understanding of the position, defensive acumen including a strong penalty killing background, and a capable puck carrier/distributor in a Leafs bottom six that seemed starved for that type of player last season.

Suter would bring a lot of stability to the Leafs centre position as the bottom six depth of Suter, Laughton, and Holmberg would potentially be able to better support injuries centres on the top two lines as well, albeit for the short term, there isn’t a good replacement anywhere for a long term Matthews absence.

With Suter projected to come in at around the $4-5M mark per season, he is a player the Leafs should strongly consider even if he’s not their preferred archetype. He’s a strong staple that the Leafs can build their identity around even if he doesn’t perfectly encapsule the direction they want to go.

A “not good enough” approach

The trade deadline is one of the areas where the Leafs demonstrated their ability to constantly come up short. Heading into the trade deadline Toronto was focused largely on what their perceived holes in the lineup were, a third line centre and a second pairing defenceman. To the credit of Brad Treliving, he attempted to address those holes, but quite possibly in the least impactful way possible. The same can be said of his previous acquisitions of Joel Edmundson and Ilya Lyubushkin at the trade deadline, and I think it would be fair to say that his hiring of Craig Berube, Derek Lalonde and others seem more about removing vacant spots in a chart than going after the best available option.

Depending on what happens with Marner and Tavares, this year will certainly be different in how Brad Treliving is forced to go about business, but there is still no denying that his approach has always been more about plugging holes than looking for upgrades. Scott Laughton was an attempt to plug a hole and he came up short. If Treliving had gone into the trade deadline envisioning Tavares as the third line centre and assessed the Leafs need as a second line centre, would the Leafs have achieved more in the post season? (I fully acknowledge that Scott Laughton was a playoff bright spot and this isn’t a criticism of him, just the organizational depth.)

The same is largely true of the Carlo trade. The Leafs checked their box and brought in someone who pushed Ekman-Larsson down the depth chart. The issue is that they could have been more ambitious and looked at who can push Tanev, Rielly, and McCabe down the lineup as well.

Toronto comes up short consistently because its Hockey Operations department is only focused on checking the box of making the team better. It needs to be focused on building the best team and you can see that approach in teams not only like the Panthers and Oilers, but the Stars, Avalanche, Hurricanes, and the pre-rebuilding Bruins. As much as the effort of the Leafs and accusations of lack of heart are thrown around for the players on the ice, it is arguable that the front office is even guiltier of complency, and perhaps Treliving needs to take advice from a Homesense cross-stitch throwpillow and “be the change he wants to see.”