Toronto Maple Leafs: Connor Carrick Must Play

The Toronto Maple Leafs defense is better than most people think.

One of the reasons that I think the Toronto Maple Leafs defense is underrated is because of Connor Carrick.  He seems to be viewed as a fringe part of the team, but I believe he could turn out to be a really good player.

Acquired in February 2016 along with Brooks Laich and a second round pick from Washington for Daniel Winnick and a fifth round pick, Connor Carrick has been in and out of the lineup ever since.

A small but scrappy player, the  24 year-old former fifth round pick has almost no offense to his game but is strong defensively.  In the NHL, players who provide good defense without any offense tend to get underrated.  And if you’re 5’10 and that’s your profile?  Forget it!

Last year Carrick only got into 47 games and did not dress in the Playoffs.  He was regularly sat so that the Leafs could dress Roman Polak.  Mike Babcock is considered one of the best coaches in the world, but that is a move he made on purpose.  Think about the next time you make a mistake if you want to feel better about yourself.

Carrick Stats

The Toronto Maple Leafs were a bad possession team that gave up too many shots and generally sucked at defense last season.  They also lack quality right-hand shots on the blue line.   So here are some reasons to play Connor Carrick regularly:

Unless noted, all stats are 5v5, include Leafs D who played 40 games or more, and are from Naturalstattrick.com

• Led Leafs in possession last season. 52.5 CF%
• Second on Leafs in goals-for%
• 27 Shots-Against per 60 minutes.
• A shots-against differential 5 shots better than the Leafs next best player
• Ryan Stimson’s ‘Passing Project’ rated him a 99/100 on Defense.
• His 2.1 Goals-Against/60 ties him with Gardiner and is way better than anyone else on the team.
• +3% relative Corsi-For to his team.

Another things that shows how good Connor Carrick is, are his WOWYs. This stand for ‘with you, without you’ and shows you the player’s Corsi with and without each player he played with.  It’s a very good stat for finding out which players work well together, and which players are dragging their partners down.

Carrick skated the most last season with Andreas Borgman. Together they were a 48.88% pairing.  When Carrick played with anyone else, he was a 55% player, while Borgman with anyone else was a 46.73% player.  This shows that Borgman  made Carrick worse, and that Carrick made Borgman better.

Carrick and Dermott were a 58% pairing. Dermott was a 54% player without Carrick, and Carrick was a 49% player without Dermott.  This shows that they both compliment each other.

Carrick made Gardiner, Rielly and Hainsey better too.

To sum up: Connor Carrick posts excellent defensive statistics on a team that has terrible defense.  He plays a position that the team he plays for is extremely weak at.  He demonstrably makes everyone he plays with better.

Unless the Leafs acquire a high-end right-handed defenseman, Connor Carrick should be entering this season as the Toronto Maple Leafs best right-handed defenseman.   He would make an excellent partner for Morgan Rielly on the Leafs top pairing, replacing the ancient Ron Hainsey.  Or you could have him replace Zaitsev with Gardiner.

He was, however, so successful with Travis Dermott that I’d like to see them partnered together permanently.  Whatever the choices one thing is clear: Carrick is an above average NHL defenseman who shoots right.

He needs to play every game.  The things everyone says the Toronto Maple Leafs need is a right-handed defensive defenseman.  Turns out they already have one.