Maple Leafs Confound Arm-Chair GMs w/ Confusing Roster Transaction

The Toronto Maple Leafs have demoted forward Kasperi Kapanen.

The Toronto Maple Leafs continue to confound and confuse.

In three games with the Toronto Maple Leafs this year,  Kapanen has played for 32 minutes ( four on special teams) scored zero points and gotten seven shots.  At 5v5 Kapanen had a 52% Corsi, playing two games with Kadri/Komorov and one game with Martin/Moore.   He wasn’t particularly noticeable, but he seems to have been effective, and he certainly didn’t look bad.

At worst, Kapanen is a competent NHL player.  At best, he’s the team’s second best prospect after Timothy Liljegren, and a potential effective top six player who excels at defense.  Why the Leafs – whose team defense is atrocious – wouldn’t be interested in playing one of their fastest and best defensive players is beyond me.

No sense worrying about it though.  Eventually, the Leafs will trade Kapanen or Brown or Bozak or JVR and they’ll have room to play all of their best players.  Kapanen didn’t deserve to be demoted though, and it’s evident that he is a legit NHLer.  It will be interesting to see how long he stays in the American League.

Frederick Guathier

Frederick Gauthier is coming off of a long-term injury and will get his first taste of NHL action since last year.  He recently returned to the Marlies and has played eight games, setting up two goals.

And if you’re thinking “The Leafs should totally demote a guy who scores a point-per-game in the AHL and can play solid NHL defense, even though he’s just 21, in order to play an older, slower, worse defensive player who scores less,” then congratulations on roasting me in the comments section.

Why?

But to me, that is confusing.  I hope Gauthier has a great NHL career and that he works out and is a solid player for the Leafs.  But I’ve seen no evidence he can do that.  Kapanen has a career Corsi of 45%.  He has four points in 28 playoff games.

He scores less than Kapanen.  And. he is worse at defense than Kapanen.

This move makes no sense.

I’m glad he’s recovered from his injury and I hope the Leafs are right, and that a lack of a big slow centre on their fourth line is the current problem.   It’s not, and they aren’t, but what can you do?

Kasperi Kapanen has earned his shot at the NHL.  But then again, Mitch Marner has earned his spot above the fourth line and Connor Carrick has never done anything to deserve being a healthy scratch, other than be demonstrably better than Roman Polak and happening to shoot the same hand as him, that is.

All that said, no one pays me six million dollars a year to decide how to put an NHL team together.  I would love, however, to hear the rationale behind this move and then see some evidence that it will improve the team.  Because demoting a player who is superior at both offense and defense compared to  the player who is replacing him on the roster is confusing to say the least.

The Toronto  Maple Leafs: some people love them, some people hate them, no one understands them.