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Leafs fans won't shut up about trying to bring McDavid to Toronto

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
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Jun 18 2025, 4:04 pm
Leafs fans won't shut up about trying to bring McDavid to Toronto
Ed Mulholland/Imagn Images

The Toronto Maple Leafs might not have been playing in the Stanley Cup Final this year (or, you know, pretty much any year since 1967), but they’ve still managed to find themselves as part of the narrative once again.

On Tuesday night, the Florida Panthers won their second consecutive Stanley Cup, downing the Edmonton Oilers in six games in a rematch of last year’s final.

While it was easy to draw pre-series comparisons of Sidney Crosby and Wayne Gretzky winning their first championships in a Stanley Cup Final rematch, McDavid’s Oilers fell two games short of winning hockey’s ultimate prize.

Since being drafted first overall 10 years ago by the Oilers, the last two seasons have been the two closest chances McDavid has had at cementing his place among hockey’s greatest players ever.

It’s easy to make a case that McDavid is already the best player to never win a Stanley Cup, with five Art Ross trophies as the league’s leading scorer and three Hart Trophies as league MVP to his name.

And with McDavid now only a year away from his eight-year, US$100 million contract in Edmonton ending, hundreds of tweets flooded in from Leafs fans trying to convince McDavid to come to Toronto and try to end a double Stanley Cup drought.

It’s the exact same scenario that played out last year: Oilers lose the Stanley Cup Final to the Panthers, and Leafs fans wonder if McDavid would ever venture east to his hometown team, whether as a free agent in 2026 or via a shocking blockbuster trade.

McDavid grew up as a Leafs fan in nearby Newmarket, Ontario, but ended up in Edmonton after a historic 2015 Draft Lottery, in which Toronto ended up with the fourth pick, selecting Mitch Marner.

McDavid is eligible to re-sign a massive new deal with the Oilers as soon as July 1 of this year, setting up a second lengthy stay that could carry him as long as until he’s 36.

Leafs fans have picked up quite an ego in McDavid’s time in the NHL, of bringing big-name stars to Toronto, even if they might be a little bit further down the line in their career. Since 2018, they’ve lured John Tavares, Mark Giordano, Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Chris Tanev, Max Pacioretty, Jason Spezza, and Wayne Simmonds in as free agents, all of whom once were major stars in other markets.

While none may reach the level of McDavid, there is at least a precedent for big-name players to no longer shy away from the bright lights and intense scrutiny that come with hockey’s biggest market.

Interestingly, the Leafs would likely have the salary cap room to sign McDavid to a megadeal of his own in Toronto in 2026, partially due to the likely departure of Marner this year.

Of course, even if Toronto didn’t have the immediate cap room for such a move, you could imagine they’d move just about any player on their roster to make room for the future Hall of Famer.

And while the idea of being a one-team player for his whole career might be something that matters to McDavid, it hasn’t always been a proven path to success.

Matthew Tkachuk didn’t win two Stanley Cups by staying with the same team that drafted him, nor did Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, or much of the Panthers’ core. In fact, just four of the players who lifted the trophy on Tuesday for Florida were originally drafted by the franchise.

McDavid coming to Toronto to play for the Leafs might never be a reality. But until he’s officially retired from the NHL, you can bet that Leafs fans won’t ever shut up about the possibility of it happening.

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