The Toronto Maple Leafs Locker Room Need New Voices
Was John Tavares Part of the Problem and is it Time to Move On?
The Toronto Maple Leafs must close the classroom regarding lessons learned after another Game 7 loss. This time, it was to the Florida Panthers in Round 2 of the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
For nine years, Toronto fans and the media have heard the same thing about learning lessons, getting close, being right there, needing to find that next step to win, and the other cliches you can think of when it comes to losing.
Since arriving in 2018, John Tavares was the captain of the Maple Leafs until he handed the “C” over to Auston Matthews. But the answers seemed scripted and rehearsed—no passion or emotion in their answers to the media.
A lot of it sounded too robotic, and when that happens, the answers do not sound authentic. It seems these players accept losing and just being a team that comes up short, and that is okay in their minds. There is no passion or anger about losing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and continuing to lose in Game 7, either in the first or second round.
The demeanour does not differ from Morgan Rielly, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Matthews, or Tavares. There is no passion like we have seen from Nathan MacKinnon when he said, “I haven’t won shit in nine years in the league.” That was before the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
MacKinnon was made after the team’s first-round loss to the Dallas Stars in 2025, where he said, “It’s pretty shocking,” MacKinnon said. “Yeah, I don't know. I'm in shock, to be honest. They were missing their best D-man and maybe their best forward, (and) we still couldn't beat them,” MacKinnon said. “So, yeah, I don't know what we're gonna do.”
That is what leaders do in the room. No matter what iteration of the Toronto Maple Leafs had or the players they brought in, nobody could get past John Tavares and how he spoke. No matter who the player was, they just followed his lead. Even though Tavares didn’t wear a letter this season, the room had the same subdued demeanour.
That needs to change. There needs to be more fighting and passion among the players. We all know how the media works, and the players know it too in Toronto, but that locker room needs to change, and new players coming in have to find their voice and not fall in line.
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Over the years, the Maple Leafs have brought in Ryan O’Reilly, Patrick Marleau, Max Pacioretty, Jake Muzzin, Chris Tanev, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Jason Spezza, Brandon Carlo, Scott Laughton, Nick Foligno, Mark Giordano, and so many other players who were leaders on other teams but fell in line and did not speak their minds to Tavares or whomever was the captain.
Were they afraid to speak their mind and change something? Was there too much respect for Tavares because the players coming in knew it wasn’t their team? That should not matter because we have seen other leaders go to new teams and still have a voice.
As Allan Kreda of the AP News stated on the Blue Line Blast Podcast with Matthew Blittner, the New York Rangers did not have that issue when Martin St. Louis was acquired in 2014 during their run to the Stanley Cup Final. But as he says, it all comes down to personalities.
“I mean, it comes down to personalities. John Tavares was always a quiet leader, not a rah-rah guy. Leads by example. Apparently, didn't really love being the captain there. It got difficult,” Kreda said. “He gives the reins over to Auston Matthews, the same kind of quiet guy who scores all the goals, but it's a tough thing. You need a different personality. It's hard to be the captain in the NHL. You need to be in the other guy's face. It's impossible to know what it takes, especially overcoming the dynamic they're working against.”
But it is just so weird to see how many leaders from former teams and cup winners could not have a say in that room to push the Maple Leafs over the top. That is why the Maple Leafs must change everything, starting with not bringing back John Tavares.
President of Hockey Operations Brendan Shanahan could be leaving for Long Island. Mitch Marner is going on July 1st. And while Tavares is optimistic that something could get done, a change in culture in that room needs to happen. Players can’t be afraid of finding their voice.
New players should not just follow the same old rhetoric. They should be able to speak their minds, show emotion, and not be robots. That is the problem with the Maple Leafs as constructed right now. Their emotion aren’t real, and when they show those emotions, it’s too late.
While being a captain is hard in the NHL, you lean on those players who have been through the battles and learn from them. However, you should also allow them to have a say because that is what authentic leadership is all about.
Finally, the Toronto Maple Leafs are undergoing real change. Let’s see if the results are different or stay the same.
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