Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Cut Polak

Roman Polak used to be bad, and he’s lost a step. The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t continue to play him.

I appreciate how the Toronto Maple Leafs gave Polak a chance to come back after his horrific leg injury last spring, but enough is enough. He is a bad player and he’s not getting any better.

I take no pleasure in writing this. Polak is a popular player and deservedly so. He’s known as a great guy and a leader on the team. I salute him and wish I didn’t have to write an article like this. Still, people tell me I suck at my job all the time, and I don’t get paid a million bucks to do it. I have sympathy and wish that I didn’t have to be so negative. But at the same time, it’s a professional team that charges people hundreds of dollars for tickets. If you can’t play you can’t play.

The Leafs are 1-2 since bringing Polak back, and during that time he has done nothing to make the Leafs better.

So far, in three games Roman Polak has put up a 46% CF rating. Compare that to the player whose spot he took in the lineup, Connor Carrick, who had a 51.45% CF despite playing almost 100% of his time with a pair of rookies.

Polak is just too slow and so bad at handling the puck that the majority of the time when he is on the ice sees the Leafs hemmed in their own zone.

Since returning to the lineup, Polak has been on the ice for three goals against and one goal for. The Leafs are a negative in shot-attempts, shots, scoring chances and goals when he plays.

They are positive in most of those categories when Carrick plays.

To be honest, the stats aren’t as bad as I feared. The eye test is the main reason to dislike when Polak plays. On a fast, mobile, puck-moving blue-line, he sticks out like a sore thumb.

Carrick >>>> Polak

Polak is slow. He bobbles the puck. He makes strange decisions about when to pinch and is caught out of position so often I do not recommend making a drinking game out of it if you enjoy walking.

When Roman Polak was signed, the Leafs stopped using Carrick. This hurts them, as any cursory look at the standings will indicate. But it was also bad because they sent down Rosen who was playing great, and has an impressive stat line to prove it.

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I have no idea if the Leafs signed Polak out of some misguided sense of loyalty, or if their management team legitimately thinks he can help the team. I hope it’s the former, because the latter does not bode well for a Maple Leafs franchise that has already seen more than it’s fair share of bad management.

The Leafs have several options internally who are superior to Polak, including Carrick, Rosen, Neilson, Dermott and Liljegren. To continue to play him at the expense of Carrick is criminal.

Carrick has been nothing but a solid and effective player. Worse still, is the growing impression that how you play doesn’t really matter when it comes to getting into the lineup. Carrick, like Leivo and Marincin before him, keeps getting benched so a much, much worse player can get in the lineup.

Considering how much hockey-types want to talk about character and being “good in the room,” you would think this would be a bigger story. It absolutely cannot be good for the Leafs room if the coaches favorites get ice time despite being outplayed by supposedly lesser players.

Next: Andersen Not Playing as Badly as You Think

It’s time for the Toronto Maple Leafs to cut Roman Polak.

naturalstattrick.com

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