Josh Tessler
With the cuts completed, the only thing that I would have done differently is that I would have decided to waive Ron Hainsey.
Last year, Hainsey appeared in 80 games and registered 4 goals, 19 assists, 21:52 ATOI, 169 blocks, 91 hits and a 47.0 Corsi-for percentage. All-in-all, it wasn’t a great season for Hainsey. From a possession point of view, he logged the third worst CF% of his career. In addition, he appeared to be timid with the puck. He preferred to dump the puck as soon as it was in his hands, rather than pass the puck to Morgan Rielly.
It’s just obvious that Hainsey’s style of play isn’t effective and hurts the Toronto Maple Leafs when you just dump the puck each and every time that it’s in your possession. He needs to make every effort to pass, but yet he isn’t. Unfortunately, Hainsey looked the same in preseason and game one of the regular season, as he did last year. While he is one of the Maple Leafs best penalty kill specialists, he hasn’t improved his 5v5 play.
With the amount of time that he’s on the ice, its hard to fathom why he has a roster spot if he’s played as terrible as he has. If Kyle Dubas had waived Hainsey, it would have provided Justin Holl with a permanent spot in the lineup. Holl has earned a shot to play consistently and with Hainsey in the lineup, it hurts his chances of playing every night.