Toronto Maple Leafs: Assessing the Defensive Core

A tale that seems to repeat itself over and over for the Toronto Maple Leafs is questions and concerns surrounding the defensive core.

“Who should the Toronto Maple Leafs trade?”, “how much should this guy play?” and “should they acquire this guy?”

No matter what happens, the back-end always seems to be a big question mark for the Buds. Now, over the years, it’s made some serious strides. No more are the days where they go out and break the bank for a Mike Komisarek or a Jeff Finger.

They’ve started to take the route of drafting/acquiring young talent and grooming them to become steady NHL defensemen. The Leafs have at least three promising defensemen on the core as of now and some other talent in the system. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take a look at what they have and what can be done.

From my point of view, there are three sections you look at when you’re assessing a team’s defense. What they have, what they’re grooming and who they could acquire. Let’s deep dive into this team’s back end and take a look at what’s going on.

Who the Toronto Maple Leafs Have:

Looking at the Leafs defensive core on paper, they have three guys who are here to stay for the long run, Morgan Rielly, Jake Gardiner and Nikita Zaitsev.

Of course, it’s easy to look at who they have on the team and pick out the three best, but they’re each here to stay for different reasons. Rielly is a talented puck-moving offensive defenseman who is one of the chosen prospects from the Brian Burke era that didn’t turn out to be a bust (Tyler Biggs and Matt Finn).

You can chirp Gardiner all you want, he just seems to do better each game. He’s always made out to be a scapegoat because of his giveaways, yet what some don’t realize is that he’s only giving the puck away because of how much he possesses it.

He’s up there with some of the NHL’s elite talent such as Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson in terms of giveaways. Either way, Gardiner had a career-best season under Mike Babcock and he still has room to grow.

Zaitsev has done nothing but match expectations since the moment his signing was announced. A solid, right-handed, 24-year-old two-way defenseman coming over from Russia? Needless to say, Mark Hunter was all over that.

Zaitsev immediately slotted in alongside Rielly and did everything a player of his caliber was expected to. Whether he’s playing alongside Rielly or Gardiner next year, you can bet that Zaitsev will only continue to grow.

Who’s Leftover

Once you get past those three, you see a few more gaping holes filled with question marks in the defensive core. It’s safe to say that one of Matt Hunwick or Roman Polak will not back next year and while it’s likely that Connor Carrick will likely take one of those spots, anything can happen. Which brings me to my next point.

Who They Could Acquire

I’ll probably elaborate a little bit more on this topic as we draw closer to the 2017 NHL Entry Draft and the Expansion Draft, but the possibility of signing a defenseman to man one of the three open spots is pretty good.

There are options via trade such as Josh Manson or Ryan Ellis, as well as options via free agency such as Karl Alzner or Brendan Smith.

Alzner has been a rock of a defensive shutdown guy on the Washington Capitals back end since 2010 and Smith, while not as touted as much as Alzner, could be a cheaper option for the middle or bottom pairing.

Another intriguing name that’s been brought up again recently is bringing back veteran bruiser Polak. If you mentioned this to any Leafs fan during this past season, they would have laughed in your face.

Polak was very good down the final stretch for the Leafs until a leg injury caused him to miss the rest of round one. He would certainly be cheap and if he can play the same way he did towards the end of this past season, he would be a good option to consider on the bottom pairing.

The Leafs brass does a very good job of not leaking their plans to the media, as every year they’ve been expected to go out and make a splash in free agency and they’ve ended up being relatively quiet. However, now that this team has proven that they can compete with the big boys, don’t be surprised to see them sign a decent name this summer.

In the System

Here’s a theme Leafs fans love to speculate. “Who’s this prospect?”, “when will he be NHL ready?” and “how’s he doing in the minors?”.

After countless seasons of having next to nothing in the system (Jesse Blacker and Tyler Biggs were once considered top prospects for this organization – let that sink in), they finally have some prospects to be excited about.

But who do they have on the back end in the pipeline? A couple of names that you could consider are Andrew Nielsen, Travis Dermott, James Greenway and Stephen Desrocher. With Nielsen and Dermott likely being the most NHL-ready out of the bunch.

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The Leafs also made a splash in the European pool a couple of weeks ago, signing a pair of Swedish defensemen in Calle Rosén and Andreas Borgman to entry level contracts.

Rosen is one of the most highly-touted European prospects in the pool this year. Borgman took home SHL rookie of the year honors with 15 points through 45 games this past season.

Borgman will likely report to the Toronto Marlies. It is possible that we could see Rosen fight for a spot on the bottom pairing.

Wrap Up

Just like any other typical Leafs off-season, you’ve got questions about the back end. The biggest one right now is who’s going to fill the remaining three spots.

My final prediction is that they’re going to bring back Carrick to represent the bottom pairing right handed spot and they’ll acquire another right-handed defenseman in the offseason. Lastly, Rosén will fill the remaining spot. We’ll see a core that looks like this.

Rielly – Zaitsev
Gardiner – (Acquisition)
Rosen – Carrick

Thanks for reading. Let me know who you think will fill the defensive core next year.

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