For nine years, the postseason felt less like a goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs and more like a birthright. Of course, it’s this incredibly consistent recent track record of greatness (regular season) that makes the current version of the last-place club so crazy.
But while there’s no shortage of content about what’s wrong with the 2025-2026 Maple Leafs, this also marks an opportunity to celebrate what has been (and hopefully continues to be) a remarkable continued success for the franchise.
An almost decade of dominance, in numbers
From the 2016-2017 campaign – also known as Auston Matthews’ rookie season – through the end of last season, Toronto participated in exactly 700 regular season games (including pandemic-affected seasons of 56 and 70 games). All told, they had a record of 408-214-78, good for 894 total points and a points percentage of .639.
To be clear: these numbers are elitist. Toronto is in third place in the competition in wins and points during that span, trailing only a pair of Atlantic Division rivals in the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning. Their 3.41 goals per game in that nine-year span is second only to the Lightning (3.44) and they scored almost half a goal more per game than what they allowed.
As any Maple Leafs fan knows, the “Core Four” were at the forefront of that success. Matthews has led the league in goals scored (401) during that period, while Matthews (ninth), Mitch Marner (eighth), John Tavares (16th) and William Nylander (25th) have all been among the league’s top 25 in those nine seasons.
Comparison to other eras of Maple Leafs Hockey
To find another nine straight postseason appearances for the franchise, you have to go all the way back to the ‘Original Six’ era. While Toronto had an eight-season playoff streak in the 1970s and early 1980s, the club hasn’t made nine in a row since the 1958-59 and 1966-67 seasons.
Of course, it is difficult to compare teams from different eras of NHL hockey given the differences in the number of teams and postseason format. However, points percentage, which measures points accumulation over games played, acts as a kind of equalizer. Sure enough, three of the top four and five of the top 10 points percentage seasons in franchise history have come into this age (the 2021-2022 Maple Leafs own the franchise’s best mark with a .701 point percentage).
When you put this Maple Leafs era in a post-expansion context, it looms even larger as a high point in the franchise’s history. Only the teams from 2003-04 (103 points, .628 points percentage), 2001-02 (100 points, .610 points percentage) and 1999-00 (100 points, .610 points percentage) can come close to what we’ve seen over the last decade. That means that while the beloved Mats Sundin-led teams of the turn of the century managed to reach a conference finals or two, they couldn’t match the Matthews era in the regular season.
Iconic moments
While numbers go a long way in telling the story of Toronto’s great regular season play since 2016, legacies are built on moments and memories. And while the image of, say, Matthews hoisting the Stanley Cup remains elusive, these Maple Leafs have still created their share of moments.
When all is said and done, the lasting triumphant image of this group might be Tavares’ Game 6 series winner, who won overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2023, advancing the club out of the first round for the first time in nearly 20 years. Even without broader playoff success, the overtime winners have also been authored by Simon Benoit, Max Domi, Matthew Knies, Alex Kerfoot, Morgan Rielly, Tyler Bozak, Kasperi Kapanen and Matthews.
The regular season, in which the organization is flourishing, is also not without memorable highlights. Matthews reached the 60-goal mark for the first time in 2022 in front of a raucous home crowd at Scotiabank Arena. His four-goal NHL debut wasn’t on home ice, but it was memorable nonetheless. From an awards perspective, he became the Maple Leafs’ first Calder Trophy winner since 1966 and the first Hart Trophy winner since 1955.
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Aside from Matthews, Marner enjoyed a franchise-record 23 game points in 2022 and became the fourth Maple Leaf (after Darryl Sittler, Doug Gilmour and Matthews) to reach the 100-point plateau last season. Tavares, whose decision to sign with the franchise marked a moment in itself, reached 1,000 career points and 500 career goals with Toronto.
If the 2025-2026 Maple Leafs’ struggles continue and mark the end of an era, this version of the club will likely be best remembered for having all the talent but falling short in the playoffs. If that is the end goal of every hockey season, then it is difficult to look at it any other way. And yet, this group provided several milestone seasons for the storied franchise, nine consecutive postseason appearances and plenty of excitement and explosive hockey along the way.
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