One Huge Positive for The 2025-26 Maple Leafs That Nobody is Talking About

The 2025-26 season did not begin on the most positive note for the Maple Leafs, who carried a 5-5-1 record into November. Since that time, however, the team has really turned their fortunes around, having posted 3-straight wins to move to 8-5-1 on the season.

While the Leafs currently sit in a tie for 3rd in the NHL in goals for, there's another eye-popping stat that matters just a little bit more, and the team sits in 2nd place in the entire league in this category: goals for per game.

While the Anaheim Ducks and Pittsburgh Penguins both have more goals scored than the Maple Leafs this season, with Anaheim pacing the league with 55 tallies, and Pittsburgh sitting as the runners up with 54 goals, the Leafs are not far behind at 52.

The kicker is that Anaheim has played 19 games and the Penguins have played 20. The Leafs, who are, again, 3rd in goals for, have only played 17 games, pushing their goals for per game rating to 3.71 -- good for second in the NHL.

This is a fairly significant development, as teams need to outscore their opponents to win games (obviously). The Leafs are getting contributions all throughout the lineup in the goals column, with just 5 NHL regulars failing to post a goal. One of them is defensive defenseman Chris Tanev, who has played just 8 games, and another is defensively responsible 4th liner Steven Lorentz, who has played in just 9 games.

Auston Matthews is pacing the team for goals this season, with 8 tallies on the year, while John Tavares is hot on his heels with 7 goals of his own to begin the year. William Nylander is 3rd in line with 6 goals, though the Stockholm product paces the team with 20 points, playing only 11 games.

There are plenty of positives in Toronto to take away here, and while there are some warts, like being scored on first in 7 straight games, there's a lot of time to clean up some things and really put the pedal to the floor in November, December and beyond.