Toronto Maple Leafs: Is Nazem Kadri a Good Defensive Player?

Over the last couple of years, the Toronto Maple Leafs Nazem Kadri has become known as somewhat of a ‘shut-down’ centre.

The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Nazem Kadri in 2009 and he has grown into one of the best players the team has drafted in modern times.  He is one of only eight centres in the NHL to have scored over 30 goals in each of the last two seasons.  (He scored 32 both times).  So there is no doubt he is a great overall player.

In the last couple of seasons he’s been used in a defensive role, and the team has had two successful seasons, and thus the legend of Nazem Kadri, Defensive Centre was born.

In the NHL, players get reputations and those reputations get reinforced until their practically true, even if they’re not.

The other day, I questioned whether Kadri was a good defensive player, and the  response was swift and unambiguous: I was an idiot.

Be that as it may, after looking at the available statistics, I do not think Kadri is a very effective ‘shut down centre.’ I used to think Kadri was a great defensive player, but then I saw the Leafs were among the worst defensive teams in the NHL and so I started to investigate.

The first thing I noticed was that McDavid had a 65% CF against Kadri last season.

But First, a Question of Usage

The other day, I wrote about how Kadri was one of the Leafs best trade chips.  The logic was as follows:

• He could be replaced internally by William Nylander and the Leafs would still have the best 1-2-3 centre depth in the NHL.  So without sacrificing a strength, they can address a weakness.
• The Leafs have 1 year remaining where two of their best players are on cheap, entry level contracts and therefore have a vested interest in going for it now, which means they need to improve their team.
• As a 30 goal centre with a rep. for good defense, and a great contract, he’d be incredibly valuable.

The main push-back to the idea of trading Kadri came from his role as the team’s defensive centre.  Who would fill that role?

So many people asked me this that I guess I did not properly address the idea.  It’s this: they won’t have to.  If the Toronto Maple Leafs employ Auston Matthews and John Tavares, and they still want to go to the trouble of getting Nazem Kadri on the ice against the other team’s best players, then the other team’s coach is going to throw himself a little party and question Babcock’s sanity.

Under normal circumstances, the opposing coach (unless it’s Edmonton or Pittsburgh) knows he’s going to lose any matchup against Matthews, so it’s in his interest to get his best line out against anyone else.  But then he has the problem that Tavarase’s line is just as problematic.  The fourth line only plays for ten minutes, so his target is going to be to get his best players on the ice against Kadri.

So why would the Leafs go to the trouble of intentionally doing the other coach’s job for them?

From what I can tell, the best defensive centres in the NHL – Kopitar, Bergeron, Couturier and Barkov – are all first line players that play against other team’s top lines.  Part of what makes them effective isn’t that they are amazing at defense (though they may well be) it’s that they themselves are on their team’s first line.  First lines tend to play first lines.  It only makes sense, since the only separation of player talent occurs between the first and second lines.  The really good players are really, really good.  So in a game, whoever has the best first line tends to works to get that line away from the other team’s first line.  Or at least they should.  It’s only logical.

The best way to counter Sidney Crosby is not a defensive specialist, it’s Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Patrice Bergeron or Nathan McKinnon.  The main job of any coach should be to try to get his first line out against the other team’s losers and away from their top line.

Back to the Evidence

Having established that the Leafs don’t need Kadri in his role as defensive centre anymore, I move on to the evidence.

All stats are from naturalstattrick.com and 5v5

Nazem Kadri Allowed  34.39 Shots Against / 60 which was the 6th most allowed by any centre in the NHL. He also allowed the 14th most scoring chances against.   His team accounted for only 47% of the shots while Kadri was on the ice, and 48% of all shot-attempts.

Those are not good defensive numbers.

Kadri does not compare favorably to any of the other centres who have reputations as great shut-down players.  Barkov, Bergeron, Kopitar, Koivu, Couturier, and many more all post better defensive numbers.

Now, luckily, Kadri is a great player and he brings a ton of offense to his team, which is why he was still able to be effective despite being ill-suited to his role.  He scored 32 goals in back-to-back years.  That is extremely good.

He himself is a borderline 1st line player.  He can handle other team’s first lines.  But as he’s only a borderline 1st liner, he’s also only OK at shutting down other first lines.  But its because of his scoring that he’s effective.  He’s the puck-moving defenseman who isn’t great defensively, but doesn’t have to be due to his offense.

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that Kadri is terrible.  I’m saying that he’s not very good defensively and that his reputation to the contrary is insane and unjustifiable.

If the Toronto Maple Leafs keep Kadri as their third line centre, he’s going to have lots of nice matchups to exploit and he should post at least another 32 goals.  Nothing wrong with that.

But we can’t ignore that if the Leafs want to improve their roster that they are going to have to trade something.  Kadri is the only player they have who is a) valuable and b) replaceable internally.

I am a huge Kadri fan, I hope the Leafs keep him.  I just don’t think he’s very good at defense.

all stats naturalstattrick.com