'If I Can Win The Masters, Leafs Can Win The Stanley Cup': Rory McIlroy Gifted Toronto Jersey By MLSE CEO Keith Pelley

Professional golfer Rory McIlroy still believes the Toronto Maple Leafs can win the Stanley Cup.

The 36-year-old is at TPC Toronto at Osprey Valley in Alton, Ontario, for the RBC Canadian Open, which begins on Thursday. McIlroy, who won the 2025 Masters, was joined by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment President and CEO Keith Pelley on Wednesday for the tournament’s Pro-Am.

Following their round of golf, Pelley gifted McIlroy a Maple Leafs jersey with his last name on the back. The PGA and European Tour golfer knows Pelley from when the 61-year-old served as president of the PGA European Tour from 2015 to 2024.

“If I can win the Masters,” McIlroy said on Wednesday via TSN’s Bob Weeks, “then the Leafs can win the Stanley Cup.”

McIlroy has won the RBC Canadian Open twice, in 2019 and 2022.

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This isn’t the first time the former world number-one has weighed in on the Maple Leafs. Following his final round at the tournament last spring, McIlroy hoped Toronto could get closer to its goal of winning the Stanley Cup in 2025.

“I don’t know much about the Leafs, I had dinner with someone that’s pretty intimately involved a few nights ago, so sounds like they’re making some changes this off-season,” McIlroy told the Toronto Sun, “and hopefully that’s the catalyst to hopefully that’s the catalyst to making a run in the playoffs and maybe getting that Stanley Cup.”

Under new head coach Craig Berube, the Maple Leafs won their first Atlantic Division title since its inception in 2013. Toronto eliminated the Ottawa Senators in six games before being ousted in seven games by the Florida Panthers in round two.

Tanev, Gourde Contracts And Deferred Money Provide A Blueprint For Maple Leafs To Re-Sign John TavaresJohn Tavares wants to stay in Toronto. The former Maple Leafs captain made that clear when speaking to reporters shortly after his team was eliminated in the second round at the hands of the three-time defending Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers. This desire, coupled with the Maple Leafs’ cap constraints, begs the question: How can both sides find common ground? Reportedly, the Maple Leafs would welcome him back, but not at the hefty $11 million per season salary cap hit that came with his first contract in Toronto. Recent contracts signed by other players offer a compelling glimpse into potential solutions.

It’s the furthest the Maple Leafs have gone in the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2002, when they beat out the New York Islanders and Senators to advance to the Eastern Conference Final. Toronto lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games, ending their Stanley Cup hopes that year.

There’s a lot of uncertainty around the Maple Leafs entering this offseason. Mitch Marner and John Tavares are unrestricted free agents, while Matthew Knies is a restricted free agent. Tavares and Knies have expressed their desire to remain in Toronto, but Marner, who’s had several chances to say he wants to remain a Maple Leaf, hasn’t done so.

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Meanwhile, Toronto GM Brad Treliving said in his season-ending media availability that the team’s DNA needs to change.

“I don’t believe that you have to go and change 20 players, right? It’s not always about that. It’s what can we do to help our guys? What can we do to find guys that can help?” Treliving said.

“If there is change that we need to make with the team, how do we bring people in that have a mindset like that? But it’s those big moments of really embracing it, but finding a way, whatever that way is, to get through it and have success.”

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