This offseason, the Leafs made a major (and pretty risky) move by cutting ties with star forward Mitch Marner, sending him to the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for Nic Roy.

Now, the Marner sign and trade itself could be an entire 500-plus word piece, but some media members following the deal raised questions about where the team goes from here- is it time to start worrying? Well, the short answer is no.

Depth Scoring

One aspect of the forward group that Brad Treliving has worked on improving is the overall depth scoring to replace some aspect of Marner’s production.

Now, as many Leafs fans will tell you, this mainly affects the regular season side of things. The 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs were average for Mitch in terms of goals, notching only two. Both of those goals also came within the first round series against Ottawa.

It’s a similar story with three out of the core four. Despite the 33-goal season, Auston Matthews notched only three goals through 11 games. Compare that to the statistics of playoff performers like William Nylander, John Tavares, Matthew Knies, Morgan Rielly, Max Domi, and Max Pacioretty, who either tied or surpassed Marner and Matthews in terms of overall playoff goals.

In the regular season, the tide was also starting to shift. The Leafs saw increased offensive production from the likes of Matthew Knies, Bobby McMann, who both had 20-plus goal seasons. McMann’s statistics lean more on the impressive side due to his role within the bottom six.

In terms of next season, a lot of depth scoring hasn’t left. Plus, one less star forward leaves more opportunities for Matthews, Nylander, Tavares, and Knies to score. In terms of assists (which Marner contributed a lot of), the latest addition of Mattias Maccelli fills the role perfectly, as he is mainly a pass-first forward who has a great set of hands. If he were to slot into the top six (which I doubt he does), he could be a great forward to feed Matthews, who thrived on Marner’s pass-first strategy.

Cap Space

With the moves they have made in the offseason, the Leafs now have roughly $5 million in cap space to work with.

It can be assumed that the blue and white add more to the forward core, possibly more cheap depth scoring or a younger power forward to play within the bottom six to be a more permanent option than Max Pacioretty, who was surprisingly useful for the Leafs during their playoff run.

With the addition of Henry Thrun, I doubt the Leafs will use their remaining cap space on another defenseman. The only way I see them adding to the blue line would be an offensive defenseman with a Lane Hutson play style, given that the Leafs were one of the worst teams in terms of goals from the blue line.

To end this off, I don’t think the Leafs should hit the panic button quite yet. They still retained a lot of the squad from last year, alongside retaining $5 million in cap space.