Jim Hiller's next move could change everything for this Maple Leafs forward

Dakota Joshua steps into training camp with the Toronto Maple Leafs this month answering to a new bench boss, Jim Hiller.

Hiller was hired on June 17, replacing the staff Joshua spent all of last season trying to win over. Now he starts from scratch.

That matters, because Joshua's 2025-26 season was a rollercoaster nobody could plan around. Ten goals, 18 points, 55 games played. A team-high 195 hits.

He also went minus-2 and posted only two goals through the first month of the year, buried on a line that could not generate offense.

A lacerated kidney suffered on a hit into the boards in Detroit on December 28 kept him out for nearly two months. He didn't return until February 26.

When he did play, the flashes were real. Over his last 10 games of the season, Joshua produced two goals and five points, still finding ways to be useful on 12 minutes a night.

Here's the uncomfortable part for Toronto. Joshua is signed through next season on a four-year, $13 million contract carrying a $3.25 million cap hit.

A crowded bottom six leaves no room for empty hits

The Leafs finished 32-36-14 for 78 points last season, a minus-46 goal differential that put term and production on a collision course.

The Leafs didn't sit still this summer. Teddy Blueger arrived on a $1.8 million cap hit, giving Joshua a familiar face and a potential reunion of the trio that clicked in Vancouver two years ago.

Steven Lorentz is still around too, cheaper at $1.35 million and, by most accounts, the better penalty killer of the two big wingers fighting for the same shifts.

Blueger himself only played 35 games last season, scoring nine goals and 17 points, so even the projected reunion line comes with its own uncertainty attached.

Joshua doesn't have to outproduce anybody. He just has to be the guy who arrives on pucks first, and that has never been guaranteed simply because he's built like a truck.

Two straight seasons cut short by injury is not a pattern anyone controls. But a new coach watching from the bench for the first time won't hand out patience the way the last staff did.