The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the best third pairing defenseman in the NHL.
Travis Dermott was drafted in the second round, 34th overall, by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2015. He is arguably the best non-top four defenseman in the entire NHL right now.
This is just Dermott’s second season, and his development feels like it’s gone under the radar a bit. This is probably because Morgan Rielly is turning out to be one of the best defenseman in the world, because Mitch Marner and Auston Matthews and John Tavares are all among the best players in the world, and the team is just so much better than we’re used to.
Five years ago, Travis Dermott is all we would have talked about. So let’s talk a bit about him now.
Travis Dermott and the Toronto Maple Leafs
If you look at the NHL’s contending teams for the last ten years, there’s one thing they have in common: They had a late round defenseman turn into a star.
The Canucks had Alex Edler, the Kings had Jake Muzzin, the Penguins had Kris Letang, and the Hawks had Duncan Keith. None were first round picks, all were among the best at their position in the entire NHL.
Along with the Bruins, these four teams dominated the NHL for a half decade. It seems that hitting on an unexpected defenseman in the later rounds is a prerequisite for long-term success.
This does make sense, I mean, you just can’t get enough first round picks to stack your roster. You’ve got to get lucky, and the hope is that the Leafs have found their man with Travis Dermott.
Travis Dermott, surprisingly, has only played 83 career NHL games.
Though he’s playing third pairing minutes, the relative ease of that ice time also comes with the fact he’s playing with a rookie in Igor Ozhiganov most of the time. His 55% possession rating is excellent, even amazing.
He’s getting 55% of the shot attempts, and 51% of the shots. The team has allowed one more goal than they’ve scored with him on the ice, but they’ve also had 50 more scoring chances, proving that the minus goal differential is just a total fluke.
When Dermott is on the ice so far this year, the goalies just happen to have the lowest save percentages for any other D on the team, which has hidden his true effectiveness.
In 84 career games, roughly one full season, Travis Dermott is a 55% player who has a plus 14 goal differential, and who also gets 56% of the scoring chances when he’s on the ice. Half his career ice time has been with Roman Polak, so his stats should actually be even better than they are.
Few bottom pairing defenseman are so effective. History tells us that a player’s partner has more to do with his success than his competition level, so Dermott will almost certainly have success when he moves into a top four role.
He has almost 100 minutes with Jake Gardiner and they have a 58% possession rating together. Small sample size, but I’d like to see what they could do over a few games together.
With the Toronto Maple Leafs recently acquiring Jake Muzzin, and Nikita Zaitsev being horrible, this seems like the ideal time to try a new pairing.
Either way, the Leafs have a keeper in Travis Dermott. He could be their Duncan Keither/ Kris Letang. He can be their next homegrown superstar.
Travis Dermott and Morgan Rielly are going to anchor one of the best bluelines in the NHL for years to come.
Stats naturalstattrick.com