Toronto Maple Leafs: EIL Content Roundup October 10th

The Toronto Maple Leafs are back, baby!

The regular season is finally upon us, and the Editor in Leaf staff have been working around the clock to bring you, our loyal readers, right into the middle of the action. Every angle has been covered, and every stone has been overturned.

With so many stories hitting the wall all at once, it’s easy to lose a few in the shuffle. So, enjoy this roundup of this week’s notable pieces.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Morgan Rielly Could Win the Norris

Don’t look now, but Morgan Rielly sits in a tie for first place in league-wide scoring with 10 points, alongside fellow teammate Auston Matthews. The 24-year-old veteran has put together a ridiculous start to his campaign, seemingly scoring at will while looking like the true number one defenceman the Leafs so sorely lack.

In his piece, James takes Rielly’s success one step further, broaching the real possibility of him capturing the Norris Trophy by year’s end. Is he dreaming too big? Give it a read.

“Just because some people still have trouble accepting that Rielly is on this level, here is a quick statistical comparison between Rielly and Subban.

PK finished with 59 points compared to Rielly’s 52.  5v5 PK had two extra points, but he played every game and Rielly missed a few: Rielly finished with a higher points-per-minute rate.

Rielly had a lower PDO, meaning his statistics were more repeatable than Subban’s.

As mentioned, Rielly played tougher competition, as PK plays on a team with a deeper blue-line and gets much more favourable minutes. PK also spent 500 minutes paired with Mattias Ekholm, himself an elite player.   Rielly also had a worse partner in Ron Hainsey.  Much, much worse.  And he had a higher possession rating, relative to his team.

Rielly also had a + 9 penalty drawn vs taken differential.  Subban was – 16.

Both players had similar usage in the terms of zone starts and deployment.”

Toronto Maple Leafs: Connor Carrick Making Good First Impression

You can’t blame us for checking up on an ex, okay? Especially one as a recent as Connor Carrick.

Falling victim to the Mike Babcock’s final round of training camp cuts, Carrick was then shipped over to Dallas and immediately slotted into the top-four, rewarding his new team with 3 points in his first 2 games. By and large, Carrick’s looked good.

How good, though? Give Josh’s piece a read to find out.

“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.”

Toronto Maple Leafs: Keep Kapanen on the Top Line

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but William Nylander still hasn’t been signed. Shocking, I know. As the two sides continue their contractual stare down, the Leafs only continue to play meaningful hockey games and need someone to fill Nylander’s void for the time being.

Enter Kasperi Kapanen.

Promoted to the top line mid-game against Chicago, the young Fin has exploded offensively, showing incredible chemistry with Matthews while eliciting questions as to whether Nylander will have a role on that line at all upon his return.

That remains to be seen, but Michael dives into what exactly has been clicking recently for line one.

“Let’s take a look at why Kapanen should remain on the first line.

With Nylander out of the lineup due to the ongoing contract dispute between him and the Leafs, Babcock decided to slot in Ennis on the Matthews line for the time being. During the preseason, the early showings were promising that combination might work.

But while the preseason stats were OK, they did not translate over the first three games of the regular season.

It was obvious that the line wasn’t working and a change was needed to spark  Matthews. As mentioned earlier, it was Kapanen who became the new addition to the line and a drastic change was seen.

They have only played together for one game, but Kapanen’s presence elevated the line considerably as per Natural Stat Trick. A 53.13% Corsi-for, 61.14% of the shots and 55.56% of the scoring chances compared to the opponents, and 3 HDCF with only  2 against.”

Thanks for reading! Be sure to keep your eyes peeled to Editor in Leaf as the season marches along.