The elephant in the room of the Toronto Maple Leafs‘ 2024-25 offseason was the eventual departure of Mitch Marner and the task at hand was replacing his production. Say what you want about his playoff performances (rightfully), but replacing 100 regular season points and a regular penalty kill threat was never going to be an easy job. One of the players sought after by then-general manager Brad Treliving was forward Matias Maccelli, whom the team acquired from the Utah Mammoth for a conditional third-round pick right before free agency began.

The gamble made sense at the time and still does today. Maccelli, 24, was coming off a down year in which he fell out of favour with his head coach’s system after two very productive seasons with the Arizona Coyotes prior to their relocation to Utah. There was a prime opportunity for him to secure a job as Auston Matthews’ playmaker, and a successful rebound season would have driven his value up and given the Maple Leafs incentive to lock him up if they wished.

The season didn’t go as smoothly as planned for either party, especially not in the first half, but as the campaign went on, Maccelli proved to be a productive player when utilized properly, and whenever the Leafs hire their next front office, they’ll have an interesting call to make on the future of the pending restricted free agent (RFA).

Maccelli’s season was a rocky one, to say the least. And not to any fault of his own. He started off with an assist in the team’s season opener against the Montreal Canadiens and then went pointless in his next five games. He finished October and started November strong with four goals and seven points in his next eight games and then managed only one assist in his following eight games. What followed that was an unusually long streak of riding the pine, nine games in a row to be exact, playing his last game on November 28th and not getting back into the lineup again until December 20th.

It would be naive to pretend that Maccelli was undeserving of getting scratched at all, but nine games in a row was always a bit of an overboard punishment. Especially when players like Calle Jarnkrok, who finished the season with a whopping eight points, was continuing to get opportunities. If you’ve got time for a little conspiracy theory, it’s worth mentioning that the condition on the draft pick the Leafs dealt for Maccelli would have seen the third-round pick change to a second rounder if he hit 51 points on the season. He finished the season with 14 goals and 39 points in 71 games, so perhaps 51 points would have been in the cards had he not been on the bench all December. Still, it’s hard to imagine the Leafs were putting this competition at top of mind while they were supposed to be competing for a playoff spot.

At any rate, Maccelli stuck in the lineup for the most part after that weird nine-game break. His best month of the season by far was March, with four goals and 12 points in 15 games, and he was routinely getting ice time in the top six and showing what he could have brought all year. Whether or not he returns in 2026-27 will depend on a few factors, including who the next general manager is, whether or not Craig Berube will still be head coach, and between those two, Maccelli’s overall interest in returning to Toronto. As of right now, it sounds like Maccelli wants to come back, and he’s somebody the Leafs should seriously consider re-upping if they decide that this summer is just going to be a re-tool.

“I want to stay in Toronto. I love the city, and I love the guys and everything about it. So, I would love to stay,” Maccelli said. “I mean, it’s like the biggest hockey city there is in the world, and the most recognizable team, and the fans and the city and everything about it – it’s just great.”