Toronto Maple Leafs: End of Year Report Cards for Defense

Apr 21, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly (44) skates with the puck against the Washington Capitals in game five of the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 21, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly (44) skates with the puck against the Washington Capitals in game five of the first round of the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
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The Toronto Maple Leafs players report cards are long overdue.

What kind of guy am I that I forgot to hand out an end of the year report card to each of the Toronto Maple Leafs players?

Not a very good one.

Well, let’s fix that.

It’s time to grade the player’s performances from this past season. If a player played nine games or less, they’ll be excluded from this list.

Pretty standard here as I’ll dish out a grade for an individual out of the following options.

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  • A: performed well above the call of duty
  • B: an above average performance
  • C: average
  • D: needs improvement
  • F: you blew it

In all seriousness, I’ll try and give sound reasoning to the letter grade a player receives.

And I will include plus/minus because there are just so many grades to hand out, at some point, they’ll need to differ slightly.

Some will vary because of how long they’ve been in the NHL, with the team and a number of other factors.

In the end, you know as well as I do that most of the guys on the team did a fairly good job throughout the course of the 2016-17 season.

So, let’s continue with the defense.