3 Players Maple Leafs Should Cut Ties With After Latest Stanley Cup Playoffs Failure

The Toronto Maple Leafs have some difficult decisions to make in the offseason after failing to reach the conference finals for the 22nd consecutive season.

This current Maple Leafs roster has been mired by its inability to escape the second round of the playoffs. After another postseason failure in 2025, the front office will at least consider a significant shake-up in order to make a deeper run next season.

There are some key players the team could potentially look to extend or cut ties with, most notably star winger Mitch Marner, who is set to hit unrestricted free agency. Marner is the first major domino the team will need to address, but he's not the only player whose future in Toronto is uncertain.

Here are three players the Maple Leafs should part ways with in the offseason as they look to assemble a squad capable of making a run to the Stanley Cup Final.

3 Players Maple Leafs Must Cut Ties With This Offseason

Mitch Marner

Marner has been with the Maple Leafs since he was drafted with the No. 4 pick in 2015. Since then, he's become one of their most valuable assets and the team's most important playmaker. He's led the team in assists in every season of his career in Toronto and has recorded more than one point per game in each of the last seven seasons.

His contributions in the postseason have been lacking, however, and he's one of the key culprits behind the team's inability to make a deep postseason run. In 70 career playoff games, Marner has 63 points and just 13 goals. It would be unfair to say the team's struggles are his fault, but as one of the faces of the team, there simply needs to be better production when performing on the biggest stage.

It's been projected by AFP Analytics that Marner's next contract will pay him around $13 million per season, and it's a steep price for Toronto to pay when he's yet to lead the team past the second round of the playoffs. It's certainly not out of the question that the Maple Leafs would want to bring him back, and that Marner, a native of Ontario, would want to return, but it may be in both parties' best interest to go their separate ways.

Replacing Marner would not be an easy task, but there is change needed within the Maple Leafs locker room, and it feels as if the 28-year-old's time with the franchise has run its course.

John Tavares

Tavares has been with the Maple Leafs since 2018, and was the team's captain for much of his tenure. He passed on the "C" to Auston Matthews ahead of the 2024-25 season, yet that change in hierarchy didn't lead to superior results in the playoffs.

Now, it may be time to part ways with Tavares, who will be 35 next season and is on an expiring contract. His production has been solid, with 74 points in 75 games this past season, but he too underperformed in the playoffs, generating just seven points in 13 games.

Tavares collected $11 million in 2024-25, and while he'll likely see that figure reduced when he hits free agency, he's still projected by AFP Analytics to make around $8 million on his next deal. For a player on the wrong side of his thirties, it wouldn't be in the organization's best interest to dole out that kind of money. Although he stated his desire to return to the team, the Maple Leafs would be better off looking elsewhere.

Joseph Woll

The Maple Leafs signed Joseph Woll to a contract extension before the season, which will see his salary balloon from $766,000 to $3.66 million. That's a good deal of money to pay a goaltender who hasn't proven ready to take over the starting job. Anthony Stolarz was the better goalie for Toronto this season, and barring the injury he sustained against the Panthers, would've been in the net for most if not all of their playoff run.

Woll didn't play poorly during his 42 regular-season appearances, but with his new deal surpassing the salary of Stolarz, it would make sense for the team to stick with the latter and try to offload Woll. There would be various teams in the market for a capable net-minder like Woll, and with Matthew Knies due for a new contract, moving at least some of that $3.66 million contract would help open up some cap space for the team to work with in order to re-tool.