It’s a new year and the Toronto Maple Leafs are ready to take another step into this season. For the remaining chunk of the campaign, the Leafs will need a few players to step up and play to their best abilities. Over the last month or so, Toronto and the Florida Panthers have been jostling for the top spot in the Atlantic Division. The two teams continue to share the spotlight in the division with nearly identical records. It’s crucial for Toronto to win the division to give themselves a favourable matchup in the playoffs. In previous years, they have been stumped by the Boston Bruins and the Panthers. Because of the NHL’s playoff format, Toronto could get a first-round matchup against a different range of teams. Those include the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins, who are in the hunt for a wild-card spot.
Since it’s so important for the Maple Leafs to have a good finish in the regular season, they’ll need everyone pulling their weight. Going into the new year, there are a few players who haven’t been playing to their standard recently. If they can get back to playing to their best, Toronto won’t have to worry about Florida are any other divisional rivals.
Players Who Need To Step Up for the Leafs in 2025
Morgan Rielly
The Maple Leafs are the worst team in the league when it comes to getting goals from defencemen. They have seven goals from blueliners and Rielly has four of them. The 30-year-old is the longest-tenured player currently on the team. Typically, when things go sour for Toronto, he’s one of the guys that get scrutinized. Furthermore, when the problem is about defence and scoring, no doubt he’s going to be the face of it all. When the Leafs selected him fifth overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, he was classified as an offensive D-man. However, over the years, he moulded himself into more of a two-way defenceman.
When he broke into the league in the 2013-14 season, offensive defencemen weren’t popular. Furthermore, the leading scorer for D-men that season was 23-year-old Erik Karlsson with 74 points. He was the only blueliner to reach 70 points. Last season, seven defencemen reached 70 points, including Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes who scored 90+ points. Rielly matured in the NHL, throwing the puck off the glass out of the zone and often doesn’t adventure up the ice. This might have something to do with coaching, but either way, Rielly doesn’t score enough.
The Vancouver native had a magnificent season in the 2018-19 campaign where he scored 20 goals and 72 points. However, since then, he never reached 70 points again. This season, the Leafs defenceman is on pace for 38 points if he plays 82 games. That gives him a 0.46 points per game average, his lowest since the 2016-17 season. In that campaign, he scored 27 points in 76 games.
Matthew Knies
Knies has taken a big step this season from the start of the year. He began this season on the top line as everyone expected, alongside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. In the first 21 games of the season, the 22-year-old had nine goals and 14 points with the Maple Leafs. However, once December rolled around, Knies hasn’t been the same player. In the last 16 games, he’s scored just two goals and provided three helpers.
There are a couple of theories that could play a part in Knies’ dip in production. On Nov. 20, the left winger received a big hit from defenceman Zach Whitecloud of the Vegas Golden Knights. It forced him to leave the game and not return. Later, Knies was diagnosed with an upper-body injury, sidelining him for just over a week. Despite going on a three-game point streak when he returned from his absence, he wasn’t the same player. He scored seven points in 17 games after this tilt with Vegas.
Another theory for this slump is the constant changes in the lineup. When Knies was hot earlier in the year, he played with Marner and Matthews on the top line. However, Matthews has been out for a little while, dealing with an upper-body injury, forcing some line juggling. Lately, John Tavares has taken the top-line centre role and Knies has been on the second line with David Kampf and William Nylander. Those are two faces that Knies has not shared the ice with a lot in recent memory. Knies hasn’t scored in the last nine games for the Leafs.
Simon Benoit
Benoit has been rated very highly by the Maple Leafs staff, specifically by general manager Brad Treliving. In a preseason game, he was wearing an ‘A’ as an alternate captain for the Leafs. Furthermore, the team signed him to a three-year extension in the middle of the season last year. For the next three seasons, Benoit will earn $1.35M against the cap for the Maple Leafs.
He’s provided a new side of grit and aggressiveness that Toronto has been missing over several years. However, the 26-year-old lacks puck skills and simple stick-handling abilities. It’s not his job to go coast to coast and score off the rush. Nonetheless, his abilities have affected the way the team can break out the puck in their zone. Ultimately, that leads to more scoring chances for the opposition. At the same time, it ruins the team’s offensive flow and forces players to scramble in the defensive zone. In addition, because Benoit plays with a physical edge, he racks up penalty minutes, specifically minors. He’s tied with Oliver Ekman-Larsson for the second-most penalty minutes on the team, two minutes behind Max Domi‘s 30.
Benoit is still very serviceable and works hard on a nightly basis. He steps up for teammates and answers the bell when necessary. However, it wouldn’t hurt to sit him for a couple of games and see how he responds.
Main Photo Credit: John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images
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