Toronto Maple Leafs: Quarter Season Player Grades

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The face of the Maple Leafs undisputed No.1 Goalie? Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

TSN’s Director Of Scouting; Craig Button, recently released his early season player grades for every Canadian NHL team, including the Toronto Maple Leafs.

With a standardized ranking system of;

A Excellent
B Very Good
C Satisfactory
D Poor
F Failing
Inc. Incomplete

Using that system, Button gave passing (C or higher) grades to all but 4 of the Maple Leafs that have played at least 10 games and a C- to the Leafs themselves. You can read the article and see Buttons grades here, but for this article let’s just highlight a few interesting players.

Next: James Reimer

Nov 14, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs goalie James Reimer (34) makes a save against the Vancouver Canucks at Air Canada Centre. The Maple Leafs won 4-2. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

James Reimer – A+

Reimer’s recent play has astonished to say the least. In the month of November he has taken complete control of the starting goaltender’s job – thanks in part to Jonathan Bernier’s poor play and injury troubles. Sporting a 7-3-4 record, is responsible for all the teams 7 wins and 18 of their 19 overall points in the standings.

With a .934Sv% (4th in the NHL) and a 2.07GAA (7th in the NHL) he has been on absolute fire. In his last 10 games (I’m excluding last nights game against Boston) he has faced 342 shots and made 326 saves, good for a .953Sv%, in 8 of those 10 games he saw higher than 30 shots, and in 2 he saw more than 40.

He has been the Leafs best player by a mile during most of that stretch and is very deserving of his grade so far.

The real test will be if he can keep this level of borderline elite play going.

Next: Jonathan Bernier

Nov 15, 2015; New York, NY, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonathan Bernier (45) gives up a goal to New York Rangers center Derek Stepan (21) during the second period of an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

Jonathan Bernier – F

Yes, he has been injured, and yes the Leafs have not been able to score at all when he’s been in net, but Jonathan Bernier has put taught a stinker of a season so far.

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He’s gone 0-7-1, with an .895Sv% and a 3.17GAA and has very much looked like a broken player, and very much not like the supposed savior we stole from the Kings a few years ago. It really has been a tale of two goalies so far this season.

On one hand, James Reimer, the mascot for Babcock’s never say die attitude.

Tyler Bozak – B

One of the main “leftover” pieces from Brian Burke and Dave Nonis’s rendition of the Maple Leafs, and two of the main names that Leafs fans everywhere are/were/have been cheering to see get moved out-of-town. Bozak was “just a product of Phil Kessel” and would be useless without him, while Lupul would never stay healthy long enough for us to see any kind of sustained production from him.

Tyler Bozak has been Babcock’s most trusted center, playing a key role on the PK and in the defensive zone, while still managing to score 14 points in the 18 games he has played (including a goal and assist last night against the Boston Bruins) and now leads the team in scoring.

He has been safe, he has been reliable, he has continued to score, all without Phil Kessel, very deserving of his B grade.

Next: Joffrey Lupul

Mar 7, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs forward Joffrey Lupul (19) during the pre game warm up against the St. Louis Blues at the Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Joffrey Lupul – B

The second name on most fans lips this summer to move on was usually Dion Phaneuf, but a close third was Joffrey Lupul. Joffrey Lupul meanwhile has discovered success while cast in a different role than he is accustomed too.

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Playing mostly on the Leafs checking line along with Daniel Winnik and Nick Spalling, Lupul has managed to stay healthy (so far) and has put up as respectable 8 goals and 11 points and has played in all 22 of the Leafs games.

If you’d been asked who the Leafs leading goal scorer would have been at the beginning of the season, most of you would’ve said JVR or Nazem Kadri, if you were one of the select few that sad Lupul, go ahead and pat yourselves on the back now.

The fact that Lupul leads the Maple Leafs with 8 goals and has managed to play in every game is downright impressive and does nothing but either increase his potential trade value, or convince management that he’s the right kind of vet to keep around for the kids. B might even be low for the minimal expectations placed upon him going into this season.

Next: Nazem Kadri

Oct 10, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri (43) takes a shot on goal as Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson (41) saves and center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (44) moves in from behind in the first period at Air Canada Centre. Mandatory Credit: Peter Llewellyn-USA TODAY Sports

Nazem Kadri – C+

Finally given the keys to the Leafs (admittedly thin) offense and had all of Leafs Nationally expecting him to break out and put up good, possibly No.1 Center worthy scoring numbers.

Well, with only 2 goals and 8 points through 22 games played, he hasn’t done that – yet. However, according to Babcock, Kadri has been the teams best player most nights and has improved his defensive and overall game substantially.

He is now 2nd in the league for Penalty Differential – how many penalties a players draws vs how many he takes over a 60 minute same size – with 2.8, behind only Anton Lander and well ahead of any of top 6 forward.

He is also tied for 5th in the NHL for shots on goal, but with only 2 goals, is scoring at a career worst 2.3 shooting percentage, for reference he is usually around 11-13% career wise.

Nazem Kadri has been massively snake bitten, as his terrible 971 PDO* is second only to line mate JVR’s 962.

see BehindTheNet‘s explanation below:*

“PDO is the sum of “On-Ice Shooting Percentage” and “On-Ice Save Percentage” while a player was on the ice. It regresses very heavily to the mean in the long-run: a team or player well above 1000 has generally played in good luck and should expect to drop going forward and vice-versa.”

All of this means that Nazem Kadri is due for a bit of a breakout in scoring, that could happen any time now. It also means that Kadri, despite not putting up massive scoring numbers, has become a 200ft player and really refined his game in the other areas of the ice. A C+ feels low for Nazem Kadri considering how integral to the Leafs recent success he has been, but I’ll allow it for now based purely on his lack of pure point production.

Next: What Fate Awaits Reimer And Bernier In Toronto?

All in all Craig Button has done a pretty good job of breaking down the Leafs and their players over the first 20 or so games of their season. The team as a whole has exceeded most pundits lowly expectations, and after the whole Babcock situation, we all know anything is possible with this team.

Make sure to give the full list and rankings a read over at TSN here and as usual if you have any comments, concerns about my mental well-being or general hockey discussion, feel free to leave it below in the comment thread, or shoot me a message on Twitter @TorrinBatchelor

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TSN’s Director Of Scouting; Craig Button, recently released his early season player grades for every Canadian NHL team, including the Toronto Maple Leafs.

James Reimer – A+

Jonathan Bernier – F

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Tyler Bozak – B

Joffrey Lupul – B

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Nazem Kadri – C+

*see BehindTheNet‘s explanation below:

see BehindTheNet‘s explanation below:*