What’s wrong with the 2025-26 Toronto Maple Leafs?

It’s a question plaguing fans across the city right now, especially after the recent winless homestand. And it’s one that will surely live on as the franchise decides its future plans heading towards the trade deadline.

Former NHL coach Dan Bylsma knows all about leading hockey teams through good and bad. In 2009, he led the Pittsburgh Penguins to a Stanley Cup in his first season behind an NHL bench, while last year he was sacked from the Seattle Kraken coaching job after just one year, as his team missed the playoffs.

On Thursday, Bylsma joined Nick Alberga and Jay Rosehill on Leafs Morning Take ahead of Toronto’s showdown with his former Seattle team. Having coached against Craig Berube and the Maple Leafs last year, Bylsma said that the biggest thing he sees this season compared to last is that Toronto doesn’t seem as hard to play against.

“From an outsider looking in, looking at their roster compared to last year, it’s just a little less daunting,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as deep, I don’t think they’re as dynamic when it comes to the lineup. That doesn’t mean they can’t win games, and that doesn’t mean they can’t be a good team, it’s just a little bit of a different path they have to establish to become a good team and win hockey games.”

Part of that struggle, Bylsma identified, has been the team’s major inconsistencies. He pointed to Auston Matthews and the goaltending as prime examples, with the inconsistency in their game leading to both winning and losing stretches.

“We’ve seen some times when they look like a pretty good hockey team that reeled off some games,” Bylsma said. “So that’s their fight, that’s their battle, and they’ve got to get back into that. … Again, having put their lineup on the board last year, playing against them, it was daunting. It was a daunting team with skill and speed and offensive ability, it’s just a little bit less daunting of a team to see on the roster before the game. They’re fighting that, how to become a good team a different way.”

The loss of that skill and speed in such a short amount of time is noticeable, though it’s up for debate if it should be pinned on management, coaching, or players.

Be sure to check out the full interview with Bylsma for more of his insight on this year’s Leafs, their struggles, and what Berube can do as head coach.