Maple Leafs Zaitsev to I.R: What’s It Mean?
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs have placed Nikita Zaitsev on the injured reserve.
In a corresponding move, the Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled everyone’s favorite undeserving whipping boy, Martin Marincin.
The @MapleLeafs have recalled Martin Marincin from the @TorontoMarlies (AHL) while Nikita Zaitsev has been placed on the injured reserve list with a lower body injury. #TMLtalk
— Leafs PR (@LeafsPR) December 17, 2017
This is not a good thing for the Leafs. Nikita Zaitsev is incredibly underrated, in my opinion, and losing one of your best players while already on a three game losing streak is never a good thing. The Leafs are already down Auston Matthews, and with Zaitsev on the shelf it will be even harder to create offense.
Zaitsev is second on the Leafs in total ice time (5v5), and he’s the teams’ second most used penalty killer. In total, he is the Leafs most used player.
Nikita Zaitsev blocked a shot from Niklas Kronwall in the second period on Friday. There was almost seven minutes after that where he didn't take a shift, but then continued to the end of the game. Guessing that has something to do with his lower-body injury.
— Kristen Shilton (@kristen_shilton) December 17, 2017
However, perhaps this is a good thing. As much as I like Zaitsev, I don’t think he should be the Leafs most used player. His corsi is 46% and he allows the most shots (besides the dreaded Roman Polak) per 60 minutes of ice time.
With Zaitsev out, the Leafs might feel the need to reunite Connor Carrick and Jake Gardiner – the best pairing from last season. They may see the need to make emerging #1 Dman Morgan Rielly as their most used player.
And, Martin Marincin comes back to the NHL, where he belongs.
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Martin Marincin
In 18 games with the Marlies this year, Marincin has seven points. He is second on the team in plus/minus (there are no advanced stats for the AHL, so that’s the best I can do).
Marincin gets a bad rap at the NHL level. He doesn’t score and you only notice him when he screws up, so people think he is a bad player. What he is though, is a low-impact player. He just does the little things right and when he’s on the ice the Leafs get more shots, scoring chances and shot-attempts than the other team.
Marincin is consistently effective and the Leafs would be smart to give him top six minutes. This kind of low-impact player is perfect for the third pairing, but the fans probably aren’t ever going to truly appreciate what he does.
I for one am very happy to see him back in the NHL.
Next: Is Babcock the New Carlyle?
Sure, it’s never a good thing when a key player goes down, but perhaps there is some upside to this event because the Babcock will now be forced to shakeup a lineup that hasn’t been working for some time now.
stats from naturalstattrick.com