When they begin the 2025-26 regular season, the Toronto Maple Leafs will embark on a new chapter of their history – the post-Mitch-Marner chapter. 

While it will be painful for Maple Leafs fans to see Marner likely thriving as a member of the Vegas Golden Knights, the good news is that Toronto will be moving into an era that could lead to better Stanley Cup playoff results.

To be sure, the newly rejigged Leafs won’t be making as many highlight reels now that Marner is gone. There will be fewer no-look passes setting up superstar center Auston Matthews, fewer slick moves through traffic, fewer multi-point games from a star performer. 

But that doesn’t mean Toronto will take a major step back without Marner. And truth be told, we won’t know for sure whether it’s truly a new era for the Leafs until the second and third round of the 2026 post-season shakes out.

Up until that point, the Buds are going to be honing a new style of game under second-year Leafs coach Craig Berube. With grinders like former Golden Knights center Nicolas Roy and former Vancouver Canucks left winger Dakota Joshua – and with a full season from former Philadelphia Flyers center Scott Laughton and former Boston Bruins defenseman Brandon Carlo – the Maple Leafs are going to be a more difficult team to play against, physically and defensively. 

Berube has had more of a say in the moves the Buds have made this summer, and they all point in one direction – toward Toronto becoming a more rugged and punishing squad.

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But, as has been the case for many years now, the Maple Leafs aren’t going to be judged until the playoffs roll around. 

If the Leafs suffer another first-round exit, or if they fall weakly to an Atlantic Division rival in Round 2, there almost assuredly will be more big moves from Toronto GM Brad Treliving next summer because, at the end of the day, they wouldn’t have fared any better than they did during the Core Four Era.

However, for the time being, the Leafs are going to be a notably different team in the post-Marner era. But anyone who tells you Marner isn’t leaving a sizeable hole in the lineup is not being accurate. Marner was a savvy defensive performer and a crafty creator of offense. He’s going to make Vegas a considerably better team, and in many regards, Toronto will miss what he brought to the table. 

But don’t for a minute believe that, like his former Leafs team, Marner doesn’t also have a major test coming up. Indeed, if he and the Golden Knights flame out early in next year’s playoffs, all of Marner’s critics will come out of the woodwork to argue that Marner was the problem in Toronto all along. That’s probably unfair to Marner, as one player does not make or prevent a team’s success when games matter most.

Nevertheless, Maple Leafs fans definitely want to see a different type of Toronto team emerge from the ashes of the Marner Era. 

Roy, Joshua, Laughton and Carlo are all built from a similar composition. They’re not going to fill up the scoresheet night in and night out, but they can force Buds opponents to pay a heavier price than those opponents have grown accustomed to when playing the Leafs.

Is some of that trade-off leaving at least some of the blame at Marner’s feet? Absolutely. Even Marner’s most fervent supporters have to acknowledge his role in Toronto’s failure to do much of consequence in his nine years as a Leaf. And don’t kid yourself into thinking Marner is going to face less pressure to perform in the relative peace and quiet of Nevada. As Vegas’ highest-paid player at $12 million per season, Marner will have sky-high expectations to get his Golden Knights team back into championship form.

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Treliving has used his wealth of salary cap space to put together a Buds roster that has yearned for championship form. That gamble may pay off next spring with a Leafs team more suited to Berube’s liking and playoff action.

And if that happens, the Maple Leafs will truly have entered a new significant era. And Leafs fans will be thrilled that the Marner chapter came to an end. 

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