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Toronto Maple Leafs: Defining Roles

By Andrew Boehmer

Mar 11, 2017; Raleigh, NC, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs celebrate their win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 11, 2017; Raleigh, NC, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs celebrate their win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena. The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: James Guillory-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s time to identify the Toronto Maple Leafs players roles on the team.

I want to give a reality check on the Toronto Maple Leafs players roles from my perspective. Not everyone may agree, but here’s how I see it.

Sometimes, we as fans have specific roles for players and get frustrated when they’re not meeting our personal expectations for them. Remember, roles differ from one to another. Some guys are put onto the ice to intimidate their opponents while others are meant to score goals.

Roll Call

I’m going to use the Leafs lineup from when they played under a different team name on Saturday night, the Toronto St. Patricks to decipher their roles. I’ll also include the players who were scratched or missed the game that are on the roster this season.

I didn’t rate players franchise, elite, top six, etc. on this list. If you want to know how I would rate them, comment below.

However, I did select each players role on the team out of the following options below.

Offense: Grinder, sniper, playmaker, shutdown, two-way, power forward, and enforcer.

Defense: Shutdown, offensive, and cornerstone.

Goalie: Starter and backup.

OFFENSE

Hyman (grinder) – Matthews  (sniper) – Nylander (playmaker/ sniper)

Komarov (grinder) – Kadri (shutdown) – Brown (grinder)

van Riemsdyk (power forward) – Bozak (two-way) – Marner (playmaker/ sniper)

Martin (enforcer) – Boyle (two-way) – Soshnikov (grinder)

SCRATCHED

Leivo (power forward)

Gauthier (two-way)

Smith (two-way)

DEFENSE

Rielly (cornerstone) – Marchenko (shutdown)

Gardiner (offensive) – Zaitsev (offensive)

Hunwick (shutdown) – Polak (shutdown)

SCRATCHED

Carrick (offensive)

Marincin (shutdown)

GOALIE

Andersen (starter)

McElhinney (backup)

Reality Check

It’s getting annoying hearing people whine and moan about a certain player not living up to their individual expectations for them. If a player isn’t capable of putting the puck in the back of the net each game, it’s absurd to expect them to score every night.

It’s just not going to happen.

Not every player is going to do everything you think they should do. Although some meet expectations, some exceed them, some are stuck in the middle and some fall short.

I’ll let you decide who’s who, as just listing each player and then going into why I picked them for what category would be chaos. Although this isn’t to say that I don’t have my opinions on each of them.

The Common Misconception

Some people assume that guys like Kadri, Brown, and Komarov aren’t producing enough points. For the purpose of setting things straight, I’ve grouped these three together.

Folks, they play a shutdown/ checking role. Shutdown. Checking. Their job is to be a thorn in the opposition’s side on any given night.

They do this and they do it well.

Not enough points, eh?

Well, Kadri has a career high 52 and Brown has 30 so far. Komarov set the bar high for himself last year with 36. He’s not going to produce that many points on a good team, which he’s now playing on.

Let’s lighten up on our personal expectations and realize that the Leafs are playing good hockey, better than they should be at this point in the rebuild.

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