Toronto Maple Leafs: Rookies About to Make History

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had many rookies throughout their lineup this season and it’s been quite successful.

Who knew that Toronto Maple Leafs Mike Babcock would play as many rookies as he has this season? Not to mention how successful it’s been for the organization.

The Leafs iced their ninth rookie of the season when they called up Kasperi Kapanen to play against the Florida Panthers Tuesday night.

The Statistics

I eluded to this in another article a couple weeks ago, but now we’re on the verge of it being achieved and seeing it come to fruition. Here’s a list of the rookies that have played at least one game for the Leafs this season and their point totals.

Auston Matthews: 35 goals and 62 points in 75 games played

William Nylander: 21 goals and 58 points in 74 games played

Mitchell Marner: 17 goals and 57 points in 70 games played

Connor Brown: 18 goals and 33 points in 75 games played

Nikita Zaitsev: four goals and 33 points in 75 games played

Zach Hyman: 10 goals and 28 points in 75 games played

Nikita Soshnikov: five goals and nine points in 56 games played

Frederik Gauthier: two goals and three points in 21 games played

Kasperi Kapanen: zero goals and zero points in one game played

That’s a combined rookie effort of 112 goals and 283 points overall in the 2016-17 season.

The Question

Now, being the curious guy I am, I asked James Mirtle a question on Twitter. It was kind of a win-win for me because I get to feature Mirtle and not do as much research.

He came in clutch. See, I knew that the 1992-93 season for the Winnipeg Jets was a special one, but I wanted to clarify if there was only one team to accomplish this feat before.

Between Teemu Selanne (137), Alex Zhamnov (72), Keith Tkachuk (51) and Evgeny Davydov (49), they reached the 304 point mark. They are the only rookie combination on one team in one NHL season to record over 300 points.

Sportsnet came out with this article a little while ago, but it includes some interesting statistics that I’ll jot down below.

If Hyman is able to record two more points in the regular season, it will be the first time in franchise history that the team has six rookies hit the 30-point mark, five of which have had 10 or more goals.

One more interesting fact is that no other team in NHL history has had six rookies play a minimum of 70 games in a season. The Leafs already have that number, so it’s their record to be broken.

And between Matthews, Nylander, and Marner, they hold the record for most rookies on one team to win the Rookie of the Month award in an NHL season.

That’s a lot of accomplishments.

Only 17 Left to Go

Simple math, 300-283 = 17. If the Toronto Maple Leafs rookies can manage to produce 17 more points in the seven remaining games in the regular season, they will become the second NHL team to reach that point total by rookies alone.

Now, if they get to 22 more points, they will break the Jets 1992-93 record and will be the only team in the history of the NHL to have rookies hold 305 or more points in a season.

How many more points are each rookie on the team projected to reach? Glad you asked. To make it easier and more realistic, I’ve excluded Gauthier and Kapanen as it’s anyone’s guess how much ice time they’ll see.

Matthews: six more points

Nylander: five more points

Marner: five more points

Brown: three more points

Zaitsev: three more points

Hyman: three more points

Shoshnikov: one more point

Add that up and we’re at a grand point total of 309, meaning the record is achievable. It’s within their grasp and it would be amazing if they could accomplish this feat.

The major difference between the 1992-93 and the 2016-17 season is the era in which the players played. I understand it was a combined effort of four compared to the Toronto Maple Leafs eight (nine if Kapanen records a point, which would be his first NHL point) rookies, but nevertheless, a record’s a record.

I think the Toronto Maple Leafs are good now, but I could be wrong, so we should ask Jeff.

Jeff?