The NHL announced their schedule earlier this afternoon and as such the picture is a little cleared on what the year will look like for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The season will begin at home against Montreal on October 8th, and run until April 15th, when the Leafs face the Senators in Ottawa. There will be a lengthy Olympic break from February 4th until the Leafs return to action on February 25th, and Toronto will enjoy a merrier Christmas this season as home games on December 23rd and 27th means less travel over the holidays (at least for players who have their families in the GTA.)
The Leafs have one Saturday night off this year, and it falls on January 24th, the night after Mitch Marner’s return to Toronto. It goes without saying that giving that game a spotlight on Hockey Night in Canada would have been great and one would hope it still gets national instead of regional coverage.
The Leafs will meet in Vegas earlier in January on the 15th, and that will be the first opportunity for Marner to face his former club.
Besides those pieces here are a few interesting pieces from the Leafs schedule:
Back-to-backs:
The Leafs have 15 back-to-back games this season and October is one of the busiest months for them with the Leafs playing in three back-to-backs to start the year, although the peak time for back-t0-backs will be in March, when Toronto plays in four of them. It’s also somewhat interesting that February, which features only five games because of the Olympic break will involve two sets of back-to-backs on the road, one in Alberta and one in Florida.
On the brighter side of that, two of the back-to-backs feature two home games for the Maple Leafs, while others like the Florida and Alberta back-to-backs aren’t overly strenuous travel commitments, nor is the home and home series the Leafs will play with Buffalo and short trip after a home game against Carolina to Ottawa in March.
Busiest and least busy months:
The workload is fairly consistent in the NHL now. February with five games due to the Olympic break is obviously the lowest workload month, and October having a later start, and April wrapping up by the 15th result in 11 and 7 games respectively. The rest of the time the Leafs will be somewhere in the 14-16 games range, with January being the peak working month with 16 games that month. Toronto only has one back-to-back that month but also only has one stretch of two days off.
The upside to schedule in January is that it is primarily made up of games against 2024-25 bubble teams or teams that missed the playoffs. There is a game against Florida, one against Colorado, two against Marner’s Golden Knights, as well as the Jets twice.
Longest breaks:
Besides the Olympic break and the Christmas break, the Leafs will have two stretches of three nights without hockey. There will be one in November and one in April. With the NHL starting at the regular time in October and ending mid-April as usual, while accommodating the Olympic break has resulted in fewer prolonged stretches of time off. A depth is king mentality might be the way to go for the regular season and the Leafs are positioned well having two goaltenders they can trust.
Homestands and Road trips:
As noted in the Maple Leafs press release:
- Longest home stand: Five games (3x) – October 13 to October 21, December 6 to December 16, January 19 to January 27
- Longest road stretch: Six games (2x) – November 22 to December 4, January 29 to February 26
The upside to that second road trip stretch is that the Olympic break is in the middle of it, so it potentially feels a bit more like four and two game road trips.
In contrast the October homestand presents a strong opportunity for the Maple Leafs to establish themselves early in the year.
Some notable roadtrips include the January 29-Feb 3, Western Canada (plus Seattle swing), and the Leafs get a little less of a winter break as the California road trip isn’t until the spring running from March 30th until April 4th.
Toughest month:
While January might be the busiest month, December looks like the toughest month. The Leafs have games against the Panthers, Lightning, Hurricanes, Oilers, and Stars scheduled for that month as well as tough divisional rivalries against the Senators and Canadiens. Home games against the Sharks and Blackhawks, as well as a game against the Predators might balance that out a little, but after you factor in the time off around Christmas, this month is every bit as busy as January but with tougher competition.
Additionally, the Leafs busiest road month is March, when they will play nine games outside of Toronto (
Some other things of note:
Toronto will face the defending Stanley Cup Champions/second round opponent Florida Panthers for the first time and will play each other four times throughout the year.
Hockey Day in Canada will be on January 17th this year and the Maple Leafs will be in Winnipeg to face the Jets. (Nothing like spending a January Saturday night in Winnipeg.)
And while it is not included on the schedule, the likely date for the trade deadline will be March 6th, assuming the NHL is staying consistent with the first Friday in March as their target but per the CBA it also needs to represent the 75% mark of the season.
The full schedule is here:
