Matthews’ locker clean out comments are being blown out of proportion: Leafs Morning Take
Another locker clean out day is in the books.
This time, it happened a bit earlier than anticipated as the Leafs wrapped up their disastrous 2025-26 campaign with a 3-1 loss in Ottawa on Wednesday night.
At any rate, David Pagnotta was in for Jay Rosehill on the Thursday edition of Leafs Morning Take as we sifted through all the sound bites. Most importantly, Leafs captain Auston Matthews spoke publicly for the first time since the Radko Gudas knee-on-knee hit back on March 12th. As expected, he didn’t say much. While the 28-year-old was non-committal about his future, he did stress how much it meant to him to be a Maple Leaf. Also, he took some accountability for the way went for him and his team.
In the grand scheme of things, there wasn’t much substance as the Leafs wrapped up the season and headed into the summer. The most notable moment came from Anthony Stolarz, who doubled down on his message from October: “We have to play like bastards. We have to play hard and we have to play heavy.” He added: “We got served a slice of humble pie this year—hopefully that fuels everyone.” Accountability is a beautiful thing. Stolarz probably could’ve handled that situation better, but there’s nothing wrong with a player sharing their actual opinion.
Meantime, Craig Berube thinks he will be back. We’ll see on that front. Ultimately, that decision will be made by the new general manager. That said, it would be surprising if he was kept around after what we just witnessed, especially in the second half. There’s a lot of blame to go around, and Berube deserves plenty of it.
Furthermore, we touched on William Nylander’s brief 92-second media scrum, Troy Stecher’s comments about the team knowing what went wrong this season but keeping it behind closed doors, and the uncertainty surrounding Morgan Rielly’s future.
And yes, we discussed the draft lottery. Just because the Maple Leafs finished fifth from the bottom, it doesn’t mean they will be retaining their first rounder from this year. For now, we wait with bated breath for May 5th when we’ll find out what happens here. Weirdly enough, the math’s not really in their favour. What a joke of a season.
One more show to finish off the week. Join us on Friday at 11 AM as Jay Rosehill returns to the mix to share his thoughts on everything that was said on locker clean out day. Also, David Alter, who covers the team on a daily basis for The Hockey News, will drop by to dish in, too.