Toronto Maple Leafs Should Actively Shop Polak/Robidas

The Toronto Maple Leafs need to make room on the blueline if they don’t want to run with a steady rotation of defenders in 2015-2016.

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With Dion Phaneuf likely sticking around for 2015-2016, the focus has to go elsewhere. That’s where Stephane Robidas and Roman Polak come in.

Both Robidas and Polak are under-performing defenders that do more harm than good on the ice. The leadership narrative is fine, so long as the young defenders are paying zero attention to how these two actually play the game of hockey. Seeing how that’s near impossible if they actually play, they should be shopped actively until a suitor is found.

Robidas is a 38 year old veteran with two years remaining on his contract, so I’d shop him a little more aggressively than Polak right now – even though he’s more of a legitimate bottom pairing defender than Polak is.

Here’s a comparison of their HERO charts from Domenic Galamini.

Polak’s scoring generation is virtually non-existent and if you wanted to you could consider him a marginal third pairing defender, or a fringe NHL contributor. This is where you should be wondering what the Toronto Maple Leafs are actually paying him $2.75M for.

With Robidas, he has a significant impact on goals but he’s an average third pairing defender in every other aspect of his game. Robidas isn’t on the Toronto Maple Leafs to create significant scoring, though any offensive boost is welcome. He’s there as a steady veteran presence – which he’s definitely not. His impact on actual scoring is, in the end, minimal because he can’t be trusted in anything higher than a third pairing role.

Here’s a look at Robidas from a shot suppression/generation point of view, again from OwnThePuck.com’s Domenic Galamini.

At one point in time, Robidas was in the bottom right square – which is exactly where you want to be. Lately, though, he’s trending northwest to the top left corner – where he found himself this past season – which is the exact opposite of where you want to be.

For Polak, well, he’s been squatting so long in the top left corner that he likely owns a hefty chunk of its real estate development.

On a team with too many defenders, and needing to get a look at some of the younger ones they have, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be trying to give Robidas and Polak away to anyone who will take them.

Is poor play and negative impact truly worth keeping them around for the perception of grit and leadership being unattainable from anyone else in the current lineup – or having any value at all? I fail to see how having both of these players suit up regularly can teach any of the Leafs defenders anything they’ll be able to use in the future with how the game is trending.

It’s time more leadership responsibility was placed on other players who still have the actual talent required to impact the game at the NHL level.

This is a rebuild – the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t expected to win – so giving the younger players like Marincin and Brennan, and the more reliable veteran in Hunwick, more ice time will be more valuable than playing Roman Polak and Stephane Robidas.

Next: Could Sean Burke Still Be In The Mix?