NHL insider Chris Johnston issues shocking prediction about $77,000,000 superstar's future with Maple Leafs amid playoff disappointment

The Toronto Maple Leafs have been struggling the last three games thanks to a porous defense and virtually no offense. Several players are struggling, but the "Core Four," as they've come to be known, have been particularly off.

Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews have been bad on the top line and have been called out for it, but they're not the only ones who have so far not pulled their weight in this series, according to hockey insider Chris Johnston.

He's worried that this is how John Tavares' tenure with the Leafs will end, because he's a pending free agent who hasn't done much in the playoffs. Johnston said, via The Athletic:

"Same goes for John Tavares, another pending UFA who has repeatedly expressed a desire to stay but may not be granted that opportunity. He had a fantastic season at age 34, but it will be difficult for management to justify running things back at the top of the lineup unless this group finally takes a meaningful step forward."

The NHL insider added:

"Hard as it may be to believe, this looks and feels like the final stand for the Shanaplan Maple Leafs."

Tavares, who is in the final year of a $77 million contract, was replaced by Auston Matthews as the captain in 2024-25. He has not done much in the playoffs, and it could lead the Leafs to reconsider bringing him or Marner back on lucrative deals.

---

NHL insider predicts end of Maple Leafs 'Core Four'

It's been a while since the Core Four in Toronto came together. The Maple Leafs got William Nylander, Auston Matthews, and Mitch Marner to the NHL around the same time in 2016.

The Maple Leafs stars have faded (Imagn)

Two years later, John Tavares joined the Leafs and gave them an exciting nucleus. Chris Johnston said, via The Athletic:

"Memories have long since faded about the genuine hope that once existed here after the arrival of Marner, Matthews and William Nylander as full-time NHL players in 2016, and about the unbridled enthusiasm that accompanied Tavares’s decision to come home when he was the NHL’s marquee free agent in 2018."

He now believes those four are the "nucleus of a team that has turned losing into a nearly theatrical performance each spring." Johnston said that when the stage gets bigger, so does the disappointment, and it could lead to the end of this unit this offseason.