The dog days of summer are here for fans of the NHL and while puck drop on the 2024-25 season is slowly creeping closer, it’s time to make some early offseason predictions for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Some players will be chasing down franchise marks this season, while others will be in search of new contracts come the end of the year. Regardless of what they are looking for in 2024-25, they’re all searching for one goal — hoisting hockey’s holy grail.

With that in mind, here are a few predictions for the upcoming season that could be attainable — assuming players stay healthy — en route to the Maple Leafs chasing that ultimate goal.

Auston Matthews Primed for Rocket Season

He’s already a three-time Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy winner at the age of 26 — having won it in back-to-back seasons in 2020-21 and 2021-22 and then again last season in 2023-24 with 69 goals. Now, as arguably one of the best goal scorers in the history of the NHL, Auston Matthews is set for another big season with the Maple Leafs.

Coming off a season in which he nearly tucked in 70 goals, Matthews has recorded two 60-goal seasons, six 40-goal seasons and has never scored fewer than 34 goals in a season through his first eight seasons in the league.

He has 368 goals in 562 regular season games, averaging 0.65 goals per game over his career. In 2023-24, he had his best season offensively with 69 goals and 107 points with a career-high 18.7 shooting percentage.

So, that said, Matthews likely won’t slow down from last season. While there might be some questions around who will start the year on his line, it’s a safe bet to say that the Maple Leafs’ star will be aiming for another 50-goal season in 2024-25.

Goal scoring has increased over the last couple of seasons and while some players have been able to crack that 50-goal plateau — most recently Zach Hyman and Sam Reinhart — Matthews has been the most consistent goal scorer since coming into the league in 2016.

Judging by what he’s done and what he’s capable of, this prediction isn’t out of the realm of possibility. That said, Matthews has a great chance to win his fourth Rocket Richard this upcoming season and while his focus will be on the team’s overall success, he’s primed to become just the second player — along with Alex Ovechkin — to win the award four times.

Nick Robertson Can Add Much Needed Depth

Another player that could have a big season given the chance is Nick Robertson. After requesting a trade earlier in the offseason, his status with the Maple Leafs remains up in the air. The 22-year-old finally played more than 15 games last season and got a chance to play some meaningful minutes in the process.

In 56 games, he tallied 14 goals and 27 points while averaging just over 11 minutes of ice-time per game. He was fourth on the Maple Leafs in 5v5 goals per 60 minutes at 1.12 and definitely earned another look come 2024-25.

That said, his frustrations are public. His play — if he were to suit up for the Maple Leafs — would be highly scrutinized by a fanbase that is passionate about their team and want players to want to be there. But it’s been said before, the Maple Leafs shouldn’t give in to his trade request — at least, not yet.

Instead, based off of what he’s been able to do in his short stints with the Maple Leafs, the team should offer him the opportunity to earn quality playing time. After all, he’s shown an ability at all levels to succeed offensively and with the loss of Tyler Bertuzzi, the Maple Leafs need some depth scoring up front.

Robertson, given 15 to 18 minutes of playing time, could fill that void providing the team with an in-house fix to their questions up front. It would also allow the team to see what they truly have in the 22-year-old and if he still wishes a trade following a legitimate opportunity with the team, they would secure a bigger bag for the young forward.

That said, don’t be surprised to see Robertson kick of the year with the Maple Leafs and record his first career 20-goal season in the NHL. It’s not a major stretch from the 14 we saw from him this season, but if you want to go even bolder with this prediction, we can add a 20-goal and 50-point campaign from the kid.

Timothy Liljegren Poised for Breakout Season

The final prediction for the upcoming campaign has to do with another homegrown product in the Maple Leafs’ lineup — Timothy Liljegren. Liljegren is fresh off signing a two-year deal with the Maple Leafs for $6 million, an annual average value (AAV) of $3 million.

Now, some might see it as a contract that the Maple Leafs will want to move on from and therefore making Liljegren a tradable option. However, when the Maple Leafs moved on from Rasmus Sandin, they made a choice to put their faith in Liljegren as a future option on the team’s back end.

Liljegren is coming off a season in which he matched his career-high with 23 points in just 55 games. That’s an average of 0.42 points per game — which is his career best. He saw nearly a two minute increase in ice-time last season and more expectations put on his shoulders. That will only increase this season, especially with the raise that came with his new contract.

Many believe that the 25-year-old hasn’t reached his ceiling at the NHL level just yet and that seems to be the case given what he’s done over his professional career. So, it’s safe to say that 2024-25 could be his breakout season.

Sure, Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson will eat up some of the minutes that Liljegren is used to seeing. But given his increase in points-per-game over the past three seasons, it’s not out of the question to see Liljegren make a jump offensively and finally reach the 40-point mark.

It may not seem like a major increase, but the jump would be good sign that he’s taking strides for the Maple Leafs.

None of these predictions seem like out-of-this-world possibilities and while the Maple Leafs are going to be in tough again in the Atlantic Division, they will need these three players to come through when they kick off the 2024-25 season.