BREAKING NEWS: Maple Leafs Stars Top 2025 Free Agent List…

The Toronto Maple Leafs are positioned for a very important summer next year.

Jan. 26, 2022, Toronto, Ontario, CAN: After scoring against the Anaheim Ducks in the first period at Scotiabank Arena, Toronto Maple Leafs winger Mitch Marner (16) celebrates with forward John Tavares (91). Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports / Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports is required to be credited.

It seems that the Toronto Maple Leafs will finally force their hand next summer, after years of resisting making significant changes to its core.

The two “core four” players of Toronto—Mitch Marner and John Tavares—will be unrestricted free agents on July 1, 2025. Both players have undoubtedly accomplished a great deal while wearing the Maple Leafs uniform, but given their history of missing the playoffs, it is possible that one or both of them will be playing their final season with the franchise.

The 2025 NHL offseason may be shaped by Marner and Tavares in addition to the Maple Leafs. As a result, Ryan Dixon of Sportsnet named them the two best free agents in the upcoming class. Notably, Dixon did not include players like Brad Marchand, Igor Shesterkin, Mikko Rantanen, Sidney Crosby, Leon Draisaitl, or Sidney Crosby, who are all anticipated to sign with their current teams.

For a scoring forward, Marner, 27, has averaged well over a point per game for the past six seasons. He also plays strong defense and is a reliable penalty taker. Fair or not, his postseason troubles have turned him into a bit of a whipping child in Toronto. It is therefore not difficult to imagine him moving on following this season.

“Is there anything Marner could accomplish during the regular season to alter the general perception of him? We are aware of his exceptional skill as a player; all inquiries, whether justified or not, are connected to the team’s yearly springtime setbacks “writes Dixon. “What changes if he scores 100 points but the team loses badly in the second round?

If you were laying a nickel today, you’d bet in on Marner becoming a free agent on July 1.”

Tavares, 33, is entering the final year of a massive free agency deal he signed with Toronto in 2018. He clearly won’t make $11 million per season again, but he’s still a solid player even in the latter stages of his career. If the Leafs can get him back at a drastically reduced cap hit, they’d likely be very happy about it.

“If Joe Pavelski — like Tavares, not exactly a burner out there — could be a very good player basically all the way up to his 40th birthday, there’s every reason to believe JT, who turns 34 just before camp opens, has lots of great hockey ahead of him — quite possibly with the Leafs,” Dixon writes.