Toronto Maple Leafs: Carrick Making Good First Impression

The Toronto Maple Leafs will see two old friends tonight when they take on the Dallas Stars.

The Toronto Maple Leafs squad will be going up against Roman Polak and Connor Carrick. Jim Nill, the general manager of the Stars signed Polak to a one year, 1.3 million USD contract this summer. Nill was interested in acquiring a physical shut down defenseman that would be a fit on his third defensive pairing.

Nill wasn’t done after inking Polak to a deal. On October 1st, Nill placed a call to Kyle Dubas about Carrick’s services. Prior to the trade, it was reported that the Toronto Maple Leafs were interested in waiving Carrick. Instead of following through and waiving Carrick, Dubas was able to come an agreement with Nill. He agreed to send Carrick to the Stars for a conditional 2019 7th round pick. The draft pick would become a 6th round pick if Jim Montgomery, the Stars head coach features Carrick in more than 50 games this season.

Since joining the Stars, Carrick has made a solid first impression on his coaching staff. In two games with the Stars, he’s registered 3 assists, a 15:31 ATOI, 2 blocks, 1 hit and a 54.5 corsi-for percentage (CF%). In addition, he’s seeing more defensive zone starts with the Stars than he was with the Toronto Maple Leafs last year. To date, he owns a 52.4 oZS% and a 47.6 dZS%. If you compare those numbers to last season with the Maple Leafs, you’ll see that Montgomery is very comfortable having Carrick featured more in the defensive zone than Mike Babcock was. Even though the statistics above are only from two games of play, it’s very impressive as Carrick would have been a fringe defenseman for the Maple Leafs but is making a name for himself in North Texas.

On the other side, Polak is up to his old tricks. In two games in Dallas, he proved to be an inadequate defenseman. Montgomery has clearly seen Polak not playing to his liking and has limited his ice time. So far, Polak owns a 13:57 ATOI, which is the lowest of any Stars defenseman. While Polak still isn’t afraid to be physical when needed, he still can’t be trusted to maintain possession of the puck nor to poke check. He’s most effective when he is checking his opposition into the boards or taking a block. Unfortunately for Polak, he owns a relatively low CF% and could find his way into the press box if a defenseman for the Texas Stars is doing well enough to deserve a call up. Perhaps, Nill decides to call up Gavin Bayreuther down the road. Bayreuther put together a solid campaign with Texas last year and is worthy of a call up at some point.

Stars Offense & The Leafs

In terms of the Stars offense, the line to watch out of is the top line of course. Montgomery’s top line consists of Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov. The trio has looked outstanding in the first two games. They’ve combined for 6 goals and 7 assists. The one thing to note with the trio is that they find most of their success on the power-play. So, if the Toronto Maple Leafs can stay out of the penalty box, they’ll have a fighting chance to limit the blow of the trio.

Aside from the top line, the Stars don’t have much offensive depth. They do have forwards like Jason Spezza and Blake Comeau, but at this point in their careers, they don’t have much to offer. Spezza is being used a second line centre, but hasn’t really played like one since his 2016-17 campaign. Last season was a rough one for Spezza and with a lack of solid linemates, it doesn’t look like it’s going to get better this season. Additionally, Comeau, who put together a solid campaign with the Colorado Avalanche last season, shouldn’t be called upon for second line minutes. At best, he’s a third line grinder.

With a lack of offensive depth, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be in the driver’s seat for another victory tonight.

In terms of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Mike Babcock hasn’t released his lines for tonight. Hopefully, Babcock will decide to pair Kasperi Kapanen with Auston Matthews and Patrick Marleau. The trio played extremely well in the game in Chicago and their performance should warrant their line to kept intact. In addition, Frederik Andersen will likely be back in net. He was given the night off in Chicago, since the Maple Leafs had back-to-back games.

Aside from those changes, the Toronto Maple Leafs should be able to scoop up another road win tonight.

Puck drop will be at approximately 8:35 pm EST/7:35 pm CST. The game can be found on TSN4 in Toronto and FOX Sports-Southwest in the Greater Dallas Area.

stats from NHL.com and hockey-reference.com