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Toronto Maple Leafs: Babcock Trolls Leafs Nation

By James Tanner

October 20, 2016: Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock yells from the bench late in the 3rd period during the regular season match up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
October 20, 2016: Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock yells from the bench late in the 3rd period during the regular season match up between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Minnesota Wild at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by David Berding/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Is Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock trolling Leafs Nation?It certainly seems so.

Mike Babcock recently told NHL.com’s Dave McCarthy that he has decided on defensive pairings, already (it’s August) and that he will pair Morgan Rielly with newcomer Ron Hainsey to create the worst top pairing in NHL history. If he’s serious, it’s really bad news for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Where do we even start with this absolute nonsense?

Never mind that both players are left handed, that neither player is good at preventing the opposition from getting shots on net, or that not even Mike Babcock knows who’s going to be on his roster in September quite yet.

Even ignoring all that, Rielly and Hainsey would be the worst first pairing in the NHL, and by quite a large margin.

The Leafs could still make some trades. Calle Rosen or Timothy Liljegren (or someone else) could force their way onto the team.

Mike Babock  may actually do what he’s threatening to do here, but he may also just be having a laugh at the expense of a media market he knows eats up everything he says. Maybe it’s a message to management.  Maybe he believes it.  Who knows?

Hainsey Isn’t Very Good

Ron Hainsey is 36 years old.  The list of NHL defensemen who were above average players at the age of 36 is very short.  Ignoring players who played before I was born, I can think of three – Scott Niedermeyer, Ray Bourque and Chris Chelios.   There might be more, but not a whole hell of a lot.

36 for an NHL player is like someone with a demanding physical job working into their 70s.  It is extremely rare to be effective, and almost anyone younger would be better.  Just because the Penguins had to use Ron Hainsey due to injuries, doesn’t mean he was effective.

He had a negative Corsi, meaning his team allowed more shots when he was on the ice than they got.  He was also negative relative to his teammates in both Pittsburgh and Carolina.  His Hero Chart rates him as a 4/10 in shot generation and a 5/10 in shot suppression.

That isn’t good.

He scores somewhere between 10 and 20 points per year, and is in decline due to being ancient (by NHL standards).

If the Leafs signed Ron Hainsey to be a seventh defenseman, good for them. He’s old and therefore obviously great at leadering, and he is probably no worse than a random replacement player.

If, however, they are serious about playing him in the top four, you can forget about the Leafs winning the Cup this year for sure, and you probably could make some money betting against them to make the Playoffs.

No doubt, this is a team on the rise, but let’s get real: Ron Hainsey on the top pairing (or the top-four, if you think Zaitsev Gardiner is set in stone, in August,) is a disaster.  Yeah, the Penguins won the Cup, but they got demolished by the Capitals and somehow won the series on the back of their back-up goalie.  It was one of the flukiest Cup wins in modern history.  Not to mention, they have two of the three or four best players in the world centering their top two lines, so copying their use of Ron Hainsey is ill advised.

Is Babcock Trolling?

That’s why I think Babcock is trolling us.  Or maybe he’s not, maybe he’s trolling Babcock and Shanahan.  Maybe he’s just politicking because the Hainsey signing was so negatively received.   But he definitely isn’t serious.

I think trolling management is the most likely case here.

Hear me out: he is looking at his roster and noticing that the only upgrade to his previously crappy defense is Ron friggin’ Hainsey.   So, when given the chance, he tells the media he plans to make Hainsey a top-pairing guy, knowing full-well that this is a level of ridiculousness that could force his bosses into action.

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Keep in mind, he didn’t just suggest he’d play Hainsey high in the lineup, he implied that Hainsey would be the catalyst to Morgan Rielly becoming elite.

If I wrote a blog titled “Hainsey Will Make Rielly Elite,” I’d be laughed out off the site.  And not just by the regular haters.  If literally anyone else other than the sainted Mike Babcock said such utter non-sense, they’d be ripped to shreds.

Ron Hainsey on the top pairing is a concept so ridiculous that it can’t even be entertained as a real possibility. The Leafs have better options.  By the time the season rolls around, they might even have a legit right-handed top-four defensemen on their roster.  Even if they don’t Gardiner, Zaitsev, Dermott, Neilson, Rosen, Borgmen, Marincin, Carrick, Polak or Hunwick are all better options to partner with Rielly than Ron Hainsey.

Mark my words: a Rielly / Hainsey pairing is a disaster waiting to happen. It would be one of the worst pairings in the NHL.

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