Matias Maccelli was acquired by the Leafs on June 30, 2025 from the Utah Mammoth for the Leafs third-round pick in next summer's draft.

He had been signed by Utah GM Bill Armstrong in July of 2023 to a three-year deal at an AAV of a reasonable $3.425 million on the assumption that his season just finished, where he had 49 point in 64 games made him a good bet as a middle-six playmaking forward. The deal, was an Arizona special, though, because the move to Utah was yet to come.

The actual cash salary rose steeply over the course of the contract, leaving the final year, this year just ended, at $4.25 million. Qualifying Offers are based on salary on AAV, and his would have been $4.11 million. Arizona signed these deals – John Chayka surely knows better than anyone – with the idea of saving cash now and trading the player if they don't live up to the dollars.

Maccelli struggled after the move to Utah, and the team by then had the greenlight to spend money, so Armstrong set about spending it on defence while he kept an eye out for the long list of prospects he was going to need to give very big contracts to. The move seemed to be a good for both sides choice.

On the Leafs, Maccelli suffered from his similarity to Max Domi in terms of playing style, without any experience as a centre to fall back on – the thing that kept Domi in the lineup even when Craig Berube grew tired of him. Maccelli ended up in the pressbox for a very short time over Christmas.

Berube said, and there is no reason not to believe him, that he felt Maccelli could contribute, but he needed to work on becoming better. When he returned to the lineup in January, he played through the end of the season. He played with John Tavares more than anyone else, but also spent some time post deadline with various third-liners.

I consider him to be a useful support player, but on a team where Domi was playing the same role in the top six, he didn't really have anything much to offer. He shoots from all over the place with no thought for quality, but he also is primarily a passer and setup man, something he did show some talent for. He doesn't have any skills that have a big wow factor, but he also isn't bad at anything much. He can skate, he can handle the puck, he is positionally sound, and he can play that support role on a line that isn't supposed to be the main scoring line. Unfortunately for him, there doesn't seem to be much power play skill there, not enough to get off the second unit at any rate. But he is a lot more defensively sound than players of his sort usually are.

Not a player you want at $4 million, not even in today's cap reality. But he is a player who doesn't hurt you when he's on the ice with more offensively gifted players. In all his seasons when he was lucky, falling out of favour in Utah, playing with AHLers last March, he has consistently had good impacts defensively and as a passer. I think that defensive value is mostly his puck skills, and a passer needs a shooter.

To understand what you're seeing there, because it isn't exciting... those kinds of good to do no harm results for a third-line player are what you want to see. On the Leafs, he was playing 15 minutes on the Tavares/Nylander line and that was largely why he seemed to underwhelm. They needed a forechecker not a 20th generation photocopy of Mitch Marner.

The Leafs can still sign Maccelli at any time. If they don't, he becomes a UFA on July 1.

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