We are so back. And by back I mean bouncing back and forth between overreacting to the preseason and saying nothing matters until the playoffs anyway. Nevertheless, the Maple Leafs quest to figure themselves out before mid-April rolls around begins now and it’s okay to be excited about that or not care at all. That juxtaposition is what training camp is all about.

Here are a few stray thoughts:

Will Marner be back in 2025-26? Does Marner want to be back? Do the Leafs want him back? These are all big questions but big questions that there will be plenty of time to get around to before July 1st. Rather than focusing on those it seems a lot more worthwhile to start diving into what can be different about Mitch Marner this season that will have you believing he can be that difference maker for the playoffs like you’d expect an $11M player seeking a raise should be.

Right now, I have to admit being a little underwhelmed about where Marner is starting in camp. I think a lot of people spent the summer daydreaming that Craig Berube was going to shake things up and disrupt the Sheldon Keefe status quo. At the start of camp Mitch Marner is right alongside Auston Matthews and Matthew Knies, where he spent most of last season. Fair enough it wasn’t where Marner was come playoff time, but it still doesn’t inspire things will be different for Mitch.

The counterpoint to that is how different do you really want things to be for Mitch? Assuming he didn’t get injured last season he could have taken a run at 100 points and helped Auston Matthews get to 70 goals. The duo worked well with Matthew Knies last year and starting the year with him rather than experimenting with the next iteration of Tyler Bertuzzi could be a plus for Marner as well. Everything about Marner in the regular season says this is fine and either the adjustments for Marner will be small and carried out over an 82 game season as his coach sees more and more of him, or perhaps Berube will come to a similar conclusion as Sheldon Keefe and the rest of team needs to do things differently in the playoffs and the Matthews line just takes a hit because of tougher matchups.

The main thing with Marner is that at this point a clean slate is probably going to serve him best and Craig Berube is going to need his time with this group before he’ll have all the answers. While all that is going on it doesn’t seem like anyone should have the definitive answer about Marner’s future and asking him is pointless.

Those words were stated by Morgan Rielly during Media Day at the start of the Maple Leafs training camp. The issue seems to be that the Leafs have become quite comfortable with the failure outcome and famously chose “Nothing” during their “All or Nothing” season documented by Amazon Prime. With all due respect to Morgan Rielly, these words don’t carry much weight.

What carries a bit more weight is the Rogers purchase of the Bell share of MLSE.

Rogers had a lot of motivation for the Leafs playoff success beyond their stake in MLSE. As the broadcast rights holder they would profit significantly from an extended Maple Leafs Stanley Cup run and the reality is their broadcast rights gambit hasn’t paid off as well as they had hoped. With a couple of years left and now the controlling interest in the Maple Leafs, it will be interesting to see if a more aggressive “all-in” mentality occurs.

Blue Jays fans have certainly seen what an “all-in” Rogers looks like and the results are a mix of scary and exciting. Of course, there is a big difference in the sports environments thanks to the salary cap and playoff structure.

Brendan Shanahan is another voice besides Rielly stating the obvious with “Our goal is to win a Stanley Cup,” and perhaps the pressure is on him more than anyone else in the organization to make this the year. With the addition of Keith Pelley as CEO and now Rogers having the controlling stake of MLSE, Shanahan’s contract being up at the end of the season isn’t ideally timed for him. Having presided over the team for 10 years and only having one playoff round win to show for it, makes winning the Stanley Cup or at least appearing in the Conference Finals somewhat of an urgent requirement.

Maybe all of this will benefit Maple Leafs fans who have rightly become impatient with the organization. While other seasons have been labeled as “the last dance,” the expiration of Shanahan’s contract, the end of the Marner and Tavares deals, and Roger’s larger stake of the company should put the pressure on the Maple Leafs to get it right this year.

If there is one thing during training camp/start of the season I want to get on a soap box about it is that when you have a player that could potentially make the roster and they can still have their entry level contract slide for another season, give them the nine regular season games before making a decision.

Simply put, it’s not a decision you get to go back on once you’ve sent the player back to junior and there is a strong possibility that a player of Easton Cowan’s talent will be able to outplay the value of his entry level deal. The Leafs (as are every team) in desperate need of the players who give them more than their contract says they should.

The reality is that whether Cowan has a good camp or not, the regular season is entirely different and while those nine games might involve a pretty steep learning curve, they will give the best assessment of whether or not he is truly capable of developing on the fly in the NHL.

There is also the reality that training camp is going to lie about at least one other Leafs forward and someone who might have shown well in training camp could come with a rude awakening at the start of the season. If Cowan was the next best option to that player, moving on from him prematurely wouldn’t be ideal.

Cowan’s contract also couldn’t be easier to accommodate but that’s an easy thing to say when looking at him in isolation. Forgive my oversimplification of the case but the Leafs need to prioritize having the right lineup in place for April 19th, not October 9th. And if you think there is any chance that Cowan gives you that, it is worth keeping him around.