Sep 25, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min · 9 segments
In the season preview episode of the MLHS Podcast, Nick Ashbourne and Anthony Petrielli go player by player to tee up the 2026-27 Maple Leafs campaign.
Anthony PetrielliHost
Nick AshbourneHostI mean, mainly that, Nick Paul aside, it came out with everyone healthy, most guys looking good.
There's very few of the regulars you can look at to this point and say, well, he didn't particularly have a good preseason.
I mean, that conversation might... legitimately start and end with Matthew Nyes for being honest.
Not that everyone else was like lights out good because they weren't, but he was probably the only one where you looked at and thought, Oh, he might be struggling a little bit beyond him though.
He was, you know, he, I don't want to say he looked like his old self or he's back or put it in that way.
You know, I think we should, we're just going to go through pretty much every player with some thoughts, including the depth guys.
Cause I actually thought there were quite a few depth guys that proved reasonable.
That was the one that was in Ottawa, but he said teams use like upwards of 40 players a year now.
And so we're, you know, everyone's hyper-focused on, um, the 20, 21, 22, 23 kind of thing.
But, you know, there's 10 plus other guys that you have to really consider here are going to get into the lineup at some point.
And that was a big problem last year with the Leafs is They either didn't use the right guys or they didn't have the right guys.
But when injuries hit, they felt forced to make bizarre lineup decisions, in part shooting themselves in the foot in the process.
I mean, mainly that, Nick Paul aside, it came out with everyone healthy, most guys looking good.
There's very few of the regulars you can look at to this point and say, well, he didn't particularly have a good preseason.
I mean, that conversation might... legitimately start and end with Matthew Nyes for being honest.
Not that everyone else was like lights out good because they weren't, but he was probably the only one where you looked at and thought, Oh, he might be struggling a little bit beyond him though.
He was, you know, he, I don't want to say he looked like his old self or he's back or put it in that way.
You know, I think we should, we're just going to go through pretty much every player with some thoughts, including the depth guys.
Cause I actually thought there were quite a few depth guys that proved reasonable.
That was the one that was in Ottawa, but he said teams use like upwards of 40 players a year now.
And so we're, you know, everyone's hyper-focused on, um, the 20, 21, 22, 23 kind of thing.
But, you know, there's 10 plus other guys that you have to really consider here are going to get into the lineup at some point.
And that was a big problem last year with the Leafs is They either didn't use the right guys or they didn't have the right guys.
But when injuries hit, they felt forced to make bizarre lineup decisions, in part shooting themselves in the foot in the process.
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