This week the Toronto Maple Leafs announced that Travis Dermott would be having shoulder surgery.
The rising star of the Toronto Maple Leafs is potentially out until November.
This led to a resounding chorus of takes about how this impacts the Leafs blue-line plans. But that doesn’t make any sense,
Dermott is out for six months, not six years. He is going to miss October, something most players would probably do if they could. It won’t really have an impact on the Leafs roster construction because he won’t miss any significant games.
Like, why on earth would they alter their plans just to cover a month of (mostly) meaningless games?
I get the feeling that people are really concerned with the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line, but it’s in good shape, and will be a strength of the team.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blue Line
First things first – let’s kill this obsession with handedness. The Leafs have a very strong left side presence, with or without Jake Gardiner. (Rielly, Muzzin, Dermott).
Additionally, they have Calle Rosen, Andreas Borgman and Rasmus Sandin who all shoot left and are all ready to play in the NHL.
The Leafs dressed a very old, very ineffective and very left-handed Ron Hainsey on the right side of their TOP PAIRING. I don’t remember this stuff mattering so much ten year ago, but now it’s a big discussion point. It shouldn’t be.
Who cares? The Leafs can dress six lefties if they want to. An NHL player can learn to play the opposite side in about five minutes.
So with that said, who plays next year?
The other day I suggested that the Leafs will somehow find a way to bring back Jake Gardiner. If Gardiner’s back injury is behind him, or it somehow causes him to accept a cheaper, shorter term deal, then I think the Leafs should bring him back.
Who cares what the ignorant say? Gardiner is a legitimate top-flight NHL defenseman, and replacing him would be next to impossible. Few teams in the NHL can match the top-three of Rielly, Muzzin and Gadriner. Add in Travis Dermott and you’ve got a pretty outstanding top-four, even if it’s all left handed.
We know Igor Ozhiganov is gone for sure, and we know that Hainsey is probably gone. There’s an extremely good chance that Nikita Zaitsev is gone too, so let’s just assume the Leafs management is smart and that he is.
That leaves Rasmus Sandin, Timothy Liljegren and Calle Rosen fighting it out for two spots. Three if Jake Gardiner signs somewhere else.
There’s always wildcards – Justin Holl could play his way onto the team. They could sign a free-agent, or make a big trade. It’s almost a sure thing that they’ll bring at least one outside presence to compete for a blue line job next season.
There’s no way of telling just what the configuration will be, but even if they add no one, and even if they lose Gardiner, a blue line made up of Morgan Rielly, Jake Muzzin, Travis Dermott, Rasmus Sandin, Calle Rosen and Timothy Liljegren is very good.
That is what they’ll have as a bare minimum, and that is a pretty exciting lineup. Odd are though, that will just be a list of some of the players looking to earn a job.
This is an extremely talented group that can move the puck and skate it out of trouble. It includes two of the best defenseman in the NHL, and two of the best defenseman who aren’t currently in the NHL.
The fact that this is the bare minimum, and that this group could also include Gardiner or outside re-enforcements should give the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs a lot of hope.