Toronto Maple Leafs: Travis Dermott On the Path to Being Elite
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Travis Dermott is going to be a star.
The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted Dermott in the second round, 34th overall, in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft.
At the time I noted that the four teams who had been long-term contenders during the post-lockout salary cap era (Pittsburgh, Vancouver, LA and Chicago) had all happened to find #1 defenseman, randomly, in late rounds of the draft. I was saying that I the Leafs would need such a pick to turn out in order to enter the same stratosphere as those teams, and that I hoped it would be Dermott.
The Penguins had Letang (3rd round), The Hawks had Keith (2nd), the Canucks had Edler (3rd) and the kings had Muzzin (5th). Obviously they had other players, but the fact they were able to manufacture elite defenseman outside the top-ten in the draft really allowed them to stack their teams.
Typically, once you acquire two or three of the franchise-level players you are too good to keep picking in the top ten (Edmonton being the obvious exception). That means that you’ve also got to get lucky in order to be good.
I posit that the dreams I had for Travis Dermott being that player for the Leafs are now on the verge of becoming a reality.
Travis Dermott
Travis Dermott is too good to play on the third pairing. Last night he ended up with top-four ice time, and after the first two games of the year he appears to be a revelation.
Crips pases, great skating, smart play after smart play. That’s Dermott. He may not blow you away with an Erik Karlsson-level skill-set, but he does everything well and is incredibly effective.
In the opener, he played almost 18 minutes, 5th on the depth chart, including two minutes of PK time. He was the only Leafs defenseman who had a good game, and was the only one who broke even in possession percentage. For good measure, he picked up an assist.
In game two, he was moved up the lineup occasionally, and was used more than Ron Hainsey by two minutes. Interestingly, he was paired at 5v5 in Ron Hainsey’s spot with Morgan Rielly for 3:31.
In Game one Dermott was definitely the Leafs best defenseman, and if he wasn’t on Saturday night, it was damn close.
Dermott has shown that last year was not a fluke. He looks capable of becoming an elite player, and the Leafs may just have lucked into their Keith/Letang. Along with Gardiner and Rielly, the Leafs have what must be the best left-side D in the NHL. The right side, however, is terrible.
Easy Fix
The Leafs have Andreas Borgman in the AHL and he is a left-side defenceman arguably better than any of the Leafs current right-side defenseman. The solution to the Leafs problems would be to permanently switch one of Dermott, Rielly or Gardiner to the right-side and recall Borgman.
Whether or not the team is willing to move on from Hainsey or Zaitsev remains to be seen, but what doesn’t, is that Travis Dermott is a star player. He looks like a good bet right now to turn into a top-pairing defenseman, and possible even an elite #1.
If he keeps improving, the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to be the best team in hockey sooner than later.
Oh, and even though it was just under four minutes of ice-time, the Morgan Rielly / Travis Dermott pairing had eight shot attempts for and two against or an 80% CF. I definitely want to see more of that.