Numerous Offseason Defense Targets Floated for the Maple Leafs

New general manager John Chayka has made it clear that one of the top priorities for his first offseason in charge of the Toronto Maple Leafs is to revamp the blueline.

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After bringing all six regulars back on defense in 2025–26 didn’t go so well for Brad Treliving, it’s clear that it won’t happen again heading into 2026–27, which has Leafs Nation speculating and searching for who they could add to fix it.

On Thursday, insider Jeff Marek joined the Off The Roster podcast and dissected three possible targets—Pavel Mintyukov, Bowen Byram, and Dougie Hamilton—while also floating a fourth in Darren Raddysh.

Marek said:

“Mintyukov is still a work in progress, Bo Byram makes a ton of sense, although I don’t know that if you’re the Buffalo Sabres you’re too keen to trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs—you hold a lot of cards there. Dougie Hamilton I still think has one of the best one-timers in the entire NHL, a little bit long in the tooth, but he would be an option. Would he be willing to waive to go to Toronto? The one that I would look at is Darren Raddysh,”

Mintyukov, 22, is a pending RFA; Byram, 24, and Hamilton, 32, have term remaining on their respective deals; and Raddysh, 30, is a pending UFA coming off a career year in Tampa Bay.

The first three names would all need to be acquired via trade—or potentially an offer sheet for Mintyukov—whereas Raddysh could be signed on the open market, though likely at the cost of a hefty contract.

Finding a way to move off Morgan Rielly and his $7.5 million cap hit would allow Chayka and Mats Sundin the flexibility to explore more expensive options like Byram, Hamilton, or Raddysh. The expectation is that they’ll attempt to find Rielly a new home, though that will be much easier said than done and will ultimately impact a lot of what they do this summer.

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