3 Reasons Nick Paul Might Be Happy He’s a Leaf
Nick Paul didn’t exactly sound like a man surprised by life when he talked about coming to Toronto. More like someone circling back to a place that never really left his memories. There’s something about Toronto for guys like him. You don’t grow out of it, even when you grow into the NHL and spend years doing the opposite of what your childhood self would have done.
In Paul’s case, that meant scoring big goals against the Maple Leafs instead of dreaming about them. Now he’s back in the picture. And you get the sense it feels a little different than a standard trade.
Why Paul might be happy to have landed in Toronto.
First, let’s start with the obvious: this is home territory. Paul grew up in Mississauga, the kind of kid who knew exactly which Maple Leafs were worth idolizing. Mats Sundin. Curtis Joseph. Darcy Tucker. Tie Domi. The whole era that lived somewhere between hope and chaos. He didn’t just watch them on TV either—he was the kid on the GO Train, sneaking into nosebleeds, eating cereal before school and watching highlights like it was part of the curriculum. That sticks. Even when you try to bury it under years of pro hockey, it’s still there.
Second, there’s the emotional full circle part of it. Paul has been on the other side of this rivalry in a very real way. He scored twice in that Game 7 in 2022 for Tampa Bay, the kind of night that lives in a fanbase’s memory for all the wrong reasons. He also went through the Ottawa years, where the “Battle of Ontario” meant learning how quickly admiration can turn into responsibility to compete against it. And he admits it—there’s always been something about Toronto that hits differently. The pressure, the energy, the weight of it. Some players avoid that. Others lean into it. Paul sounds like someone who’s always leaned in.
Related: 3 Things We Already Know About John Chayka’s Maple Leafs.
Third, and maybe most important for the Maple Leafs, he actually seems to want it. There’s a difference between landing somewhere and arriving somewhere. Paul talked like a guy still processing the trade, still answering messages, still a little overwhelmed—but underneath that is excitement. Not marketing excitement. Real hockey-player excitement. The kind that shows up when you say things like “I used to pretend I was scoring for them.”
Paul will come to understand what it means to be on both sides of the Maple Leafs.
That matters for Paul in Toronto. It always has. Because this market doesn’t just ask you to play. It asks you to care while you do it.
And Nick Paul, for all the goals he scored against the Maple Leafs, might be one of those rare players who understands both sides of that equation better than most.