Toronto Maple Leafs: Tyler Ennis Extremely Smart Add

The Toronto Maple Leafs added depth on Friday in a very smart move.

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed 28 year-old former first round pick (28th 2008) Tyler Ennis to a league minimum contract.  Ennis is a speedy, defensively sound winger whose career has been somewhat derailed by injuries.  He scored eight goals last season with the Wild after missing over half the games in his final two seasons in Buffalo.

On the surface, it’s not a very exciting move.  Sure, there’s a chance that everything breaks his way and Ennis once again discovers his 20 goals form, but that isn’t what the Leafs are banking on here.  The Leafs are building depth for minimal risk, and at the very least Ennis provides depth and insurance against injury.

As you can see from the above tweet, this is a pretty decent player.  You get some speed and a better than average defensive presence who in an ideal situation you can play on the fourth line.  Should injuries occur, he’s a decent enough player to move higher in the lineup.

Instead of surrounding their elite players with expensive role-players, as teams are wont to do (Matt Martin for example), the Leafs are filling out their lineup with NHL quality players who don’t cost very much. The cap hit for Ennis is roughly 25% of Matt Martin’s cap hit, and he’s a much better overall player.

Depth

The key to winning in a  salary cap league is to surround you big expenditures with players who are valuable relative to their salaries and Tyler Ennis fits that bill to a t.  There is no risk because if the Leafs end up not using him, he’ll hardly affect their ability to add to the roster.

Ennis is the Leafs 44th contract out of a maximum of 50 (though two will go to Nylander and Johnson, making 46) and has essentially no cap-hit.  It’s a good move all around, but coupled with the rest of the team’s depth, it’s quite impressive.

Obviously Nylander, Marner, Marleau, Hyman, Kapanen and Johnson make up the Leafs current top-six wingers.  For the fourth line, they’ve now got the options of Tyler Ennis, Josh Leivo, Connor Brown at the NHL level, and they’ve got Trevor Moore, Pierre Engvall and Carl Grundstrom in the minors.

That’s one extra NHL winger and three players who might have a damn good chance of making a weaker NHL team right now.

Next: They Could Have Been Leafs Legends vol.1

Once Nylander and Johnson are signed, the Toronto Maple Leafs will still have over ten million in cap space and four contract spots.  So what is already one of the best and deepest rosters in the NHL will likely be even better once the season starts.