Toronto Maple Leafs: Calle Rosen Scores First NHL Goal

The Toronto Maple Leafs recalled Calle Rosen before yesterday’s game against the New York Islanders.

Calle Rosen, who has had a great season in the AHL and rocketed to the top of the Toronto Maple Leafs minor league defensive depth chart, scored his first ever NHL goal last night in what was the first game he has played in the NHL this season.

Rosen, who was re-signed earlier in the season, was signed as  a free-agent, along with fellow Swede Andreas Borgman, before last season.

Rosen is a 25 year old, left shooting defenseman who has scored an incredible 46 points in 54 AHL games this season as the Marlies #1 defenseman.

Calle Rosen

Because he is a 25 year old rookie, it’s hard to rate the potential of Rosen.  I have heard that many of his points this year were on the PP, and that since he likely won’t ever get first-unit minutes in the NHL, we shouldn’t read too much into this.

So that is one swing of the pendulum away from the Toronto Hype Machine, but on the other hand, Rosen has passed Andreas Borgman on the depth chart, and Borgman put up statistics similar to Travis Dermott last year in the NHL.

Knowing that Rosen is better than Borgman, and that Borgman wasn’t too far from Dermott, and seeing that Dermott is now a legitimate top-four NHL defenseman may give credence to the hype.

Either way, Rosen appears to be, at worst, a decent NHL depth player.  If Travis Dermott can play the right side, as it appears he can, then Rosen should give the Toronto Maple Leafs another very good bottom pairing option.  One, perhaps, better than Justin Holl or Martin Marincin. (all stats from naturalstattrick.com)

Rosen played under ten minutes of 5v5 hockey last night in his debut, but he did score a goal (kind of a lucky play) and post an impressive 67% CF rating.  He did not receive any special teams minutes.

Rosen was paired with Travis Dermott, who provided his usual dominance against the lower competition that third-pairing players get.  Still, someone has to play those minutes and Dermott and whoever he plays with absolutely crush them with regularity.

Other third pairing partners that have seen time with Dermott are Holl, Ozhiganov and Marincin.  They all have strong possession numbers, probably because Dermott is playing too low in the lineup for his abilities.  Now, is Rosen a better option than any of these guys?  It’s hard to say, but one thing against him is that at least with Holl or Ozhiganov, Dermott can play his proper side.

Either way, Calle Rosen is in the NHL, he looks pretty good and he scored a goal.

Huzzah!