Even when the Toronto Maple Leafs are not playing games and are deep into their offseason, they sure seem to come up a lot with opposing teams at seemingly every opportune moment.
The latest example occurred during the Montreal Canadiens’ end-of-season media availability, following the team’s five-game Eastern Conference Finals ouster by the Carolina Hurricanes. GM Kent Hughes was asked about the performance of his star players in the 2026 playoffs, and he somehow found a way to make it about the Leafs.
“ I think being here in Canada, it’s gonna be a little bit of the narrative going into the Cup Final that there was that belief that certain players in Toronto underperformed in the playoffs. One playoff season wouldn’t necessarily reflect another,” he said. “ I think Mitch Marner is sitting atop of the playoff scoring race. It’s not just what he’s doing offensively, it’s how he’s contributing to their team being where they are.”
By all accounts, their season would be considered a resounding success, as they improved on their regular-season record, won two Game 7s on the road, and had their deepest playoff run since 2021. There is no doubt that from their side of things that there is still work to be done, but they should be feeling good about the direction the Canadiens are heading.
Yet for as good as the season went, there are some lingering concerns about the lacklustre production from their core players throughout the postseason. Cole Caufield admitted that his playoff run didn’t meet his internal expectations, Juraj Slafkovsky was not much of a factor apart from a hat trick in Game 1 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Ivan Demidov finished eighth on the team in scoring. That’s not to say Montreal got no help as secondary contributors like Alex Newhook produced while captain Nick Suzuki produced, but the reality is that the Canadiens probably would have gone further if the stars performed better.
That certainly shares similarities to the Leafs’ Core Four era, where Marner, Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and John Tavares were tasked with leading the charge in the playoffs and failed to do so for the better part of a decade. The obvious difference is that Montreal had better depth to offset the struggles of their stars compared to Toronto, yet neither team ended up winning the Cup.
No doubt that other teams are surely mindful of where things went wrong in Toronto and how to avoid those mistakes with their cores, but saying that publicly is a choice. Vegas Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon went on OverDrive last week to tell Leafs fans to get over Marner leaving, then said
during his media availability ahead of the Stanley Cup Finals that he feels their team is deeper than any Marner was on in Toronto. The fact that even their forever rivals can’t help but bring them up at a moment’s notice is another reminder that it’s always about the Leafs.
It’s worth noting that Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek pointed out that Hughes was once an agent with Quartexx, the same agency that currently represents Marner. This is also not the first time someone within that agency has publicly defended Marner to the media, as former Leafs defenceman Zach Bogosian, who shares the same agent in Darren Ferris, did so back in 2024.
For as amusing as it can be from a fan’s perspective that other teams find a way to make things about the Leafs, there is no denying that it’s not a good look to have your team continually be brought up as a case study of what not to do. One can only hope that the new era christened by GM John Chayka can make teams bring up the Leafs as a model franchise and one they are trying to catch the train as MLSE CEO Keith Pelley said of the Canadiens.
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