Next season's Toronto roster may bear little resemblance to the current group.
Having installed a fresh front office, with Mats Sundin brought on as a top executive adviser and John Chayka handed the general manager title, Toronto has signaled it's ready to deal. The reporting traces to Chris Johnston, a well-connected insider, who said the organization has told rival clubs it will field offers on essentially its whole lineup, the lone holdout being Auston Matthews.
Johnston explained Tuesday that the team is willing to at minimum hear pitches on any name besides Matthews. He found it notable that the league-wide chatter suggests this regime is open to discussing a broad range of players, something the prior management may not have been willing to do previously.
He cautioned, though, that players such as Morgan Rielly and William Nylander hold no-movement clauses, so a handful of those who might look obtainable aren't as gettable as they appear on the surface. Even so, Johnston said it looks as though Chayka, in taking the job, is willing to move just about anyone other than the team's captain.
Matthews stands as the franchise's undisputed star and captain, yet Toronto holds plenty of other prominent names whose departure would rattle the roster. That cohort features headliners such as Tavares, Knies, Rielly, and Nylander, alongside key contributors: Domi and Maccelli up front, Robertson too, plus McCabe, Tanev, Ekman-Larsson, and Carlo on the back end, with Woll and Stolarz in goal.
A 28th-place finish across the league defined Toronto's year, the first occasion the club had sat out the postseason since 2015-16. Now aiming to launch a new chapter, the team additionally won this year's draft lottery, locking up the top choice at the 2026 draft.
Should Toronto genuinely be open to dealing, Washington shapes up as a sensible counterpart for several reasons. Caps GM Chris Patrick, for his part, has voiced his aim to address a pair of roster needs over the offseason by landing a defenseman who shoots right plus a top-six forward.
Nylander would address that forward need neatly, and he carries connections to the Washington area, among them a youth stint with Team Maryland back when Michael Nylander, his dad, played in Washington. There's also a close rapport with Caps defenseman Rasmus Sandin. With that backdrop, the Swedish star might be convinced to lift his no-trade clause should Washington prove to be where he lands.
At 30, the winger led Toronto's scoring a year ago, compiling across 65 contests a 79-point total on 30 goals and 49 assists. With six seasons left on a deal worth $11.5 million against the cap, Nylander holds the cards on his future, but it wouldn't shock anyone if he preferred to swap Toronto's shifting, murky picture for a steadier home such as the District.
On the blue line, Carlo profiles as a sensible match for a Washington club that could use added size at the back. Even after locking up Timothy Liljegren to a fresh deal Wednesday, Washington figures to hunt for another right-shooting blueliner, since Sandin is projected to sit out an unspecified chunk of the coming year while rehabbing a surgically repaired ACL.
For years a staple in Boston, Carlo arrived in Toronto through a swap at the deadline in 2025. Standing six-foot-five at age 29, he averaged 55 games' worth of action at 19:22 a night last season and topped his club in penalty-kill minutes, skating 2:51 shorthanded per outing.
Having stayed in contention for the better part of ten years, Toronto is left with a shallow pool of young talent, a shortfall that swapping with prospect-rich organizations such as Washington could help address. The summer market around the league usually heats up after the championship round concludes and the late-June selection event nears, so the coming months will reveal how Toronto's fresh leadership group truly manages its duties.