Interesting Parallels Between The Cup-Winning Blues Team from 2019 and the 2025-26 Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs will look a lot different heading into 2025-26 but it might be by design. While they never found a replacement for Mitch Marner, they added depth with an obvious focus surrounding size and physicality.

The Leafs have always lacked those traits from their forward group, that was always seen as too skilled or soft, which is why they went out and acquired Dakota Joshua, Nic Roy, and Michael Pezzetta.

It was a necessary step considering how head coach Craig Berube operates, and perhaps more importantly, how his St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

The Blues shocked the world when they went from last place in January to winning the cup in June. Berube had a rag-tag team of big and physical forwards from Patrick Maroon, Oskar Sundqvist, Brayden Schenn, and even Ryan O'Reilly.

He did have some skilled players like Vladimir Tarasenko, but Berube now has the pleasure of working with the likes of Auston Matthews and William Nylander. All that was missing from last year's team was grit and size, which Treliving delivered this summer.

Joshua and Roy in particular, are two heavy forwards who can play big minutes, finish their checks, and add much needed secondary scoring, which was something that was gravely missing last year.

Additionally, Berube's Blues team also had a big and skilled backend with Alex Pietrangelo, Colton Parayko, and Jay Bouwmeester, which can offer parallels to the current Leafs team that has Chris Tanev, Jake McCabe, Brandon Carlo, and Morgan Rielly.

For the Blues, Jaden Schwartz was an instrumental piece, who at the time was 26-years-old, had 20-goal campaigns under his belt, and was a consistent offensive piece. While he's still a few years away, Matias Maccelli could be used in a similar role and provide the Leafs with a much needed spark on the wings.

Berube was able to reinvigorate his group from the bottom of the standings to winning a cup. They didn't have a point-per-game player but they worked their tail off to win games - which is the Berube system working to a tee.

That is a trait that the Leafs will certainly employ this year but with the added bonus of having a generational goal scorer in Matthews, another superstar in the making in Nylander, a strong back-end, and two skilled goaltenders.