Toronto Maple Leafs: Does Leivo Have A Spot In The Lineup?

It’s no secret that Josh Leivo hasn’t been happy with the Toronto Maple Leafs coaching staff.

In the middle of the 2017-18 season, there were rumours floating around that Leivo had enough. The Innisfil, Ontario native presumably wanted to leave the Toronto Maple Leafs and find another team in the NHL that would give him playing time. Instead, he spent a lot of time in the press box or playing soccer outside of the locker room with other players who were scratched.

Last season, Leivo was only featured in 16 games last year. Sadly for Leivo, that was a career high. Prior to the 2017-18 campaign, he played an average of 10.25 games per season. In terms of his ice-time, he had ATOI from 2013-2017 was approximately 10 minutes.

This is ridiculous. There is no possible way that the Toronto Maple Leafs front office can properly evaluate whether a player can participate in the lineup day-in, night-out if he’s played in less than 20% of games.

In addition, Leivo is honestly asking for fourth line minutes. He’s not asking to play with Auston Matthews or John Tavares every night. He simply wants playing time. If I were in Leivo’s shoes, I’d demand the same thing.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs can’t fork up fourth line minutes for him, it’s incredibly foolish. The  Maple Leafs have if not the best offense in the NHL than the second best.

What His Numbers Could Have Been?

Last season, Leivo’s numbers weren’t very good if you just prorate them over the full season.  If you did that,, he would have had approximately 5 goals and15 assists.  Those are  numbers  on par with Leo Komarov‘s performance from last year, and we know how much offense he provides.

If however, you look at Leivo’s rate stats, which are by far the better way to evaluate a player who doesn’t play that much, you see that he scored at a rate of 1.77 pts/60 which are good second line totals if he can maintain them.  With a short sample size you never know, but Leivo’s shot creation strongly suggests that he’d thrive if given more ice time.

If you look at Leivo’s 2016-17 campaign, he would have had an outstanding year if he played a full season.  He scored at a pace of 3.13 pts/60, which is Connor McDavid territory.  Obviously he’s not going to maintain that, but if we combine it with the scoring he had last year, we see a player that, at the very least, will score when given the opportunity.

The 2018-19 regular season is a new chapter in the Toronto Maple Leafs book. It’s a new opportunity to see what Leivo is made of. I challenge Mike Babcock and the Maple Leafs coaching staff to play Leivo consistently. Worst case he doesn’t pan out and you put him on the infamous Robidas Island. Or you trade him, but not giving him the chance to prove himself is complete rubbish.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com