Tyler Ennis by James Tanner
Other than Robin Lehner in New York, it’s hard to think of a player who had a bigger impact out of last year’s show-me UFA deals for vets.
Tyler Ennis was fantastic for the Toronto Maple Leafs this year, and hopefully they won’t mind re-signing to a new contract, because not only is a great player who helps the team out a lot when he is on the ice, but he’s extremely fun to watch.
Tyler Ennis put up a 46% Corsi and had 12 goals and 18 points in 51 games. It doesn’t sound very good without the context, but the context is everything in this case.
First, Ennis jumped from a 46% player to a 61% player whenever he got away from FrederiK Gauthier. It was an error on Mike Babcock’s part not to recognize Ennis contributions and get him more ice time with better players. Certainly he may have been an interesting addition to the Tavares line, as a replacement for Hyman, or on the Kadri line replacing Marleau.
Ennis scored 1.85 points per 60 minutes of 5v5 ice-time, just below Hyman’s 1.96 and Kasperi Kapanen’s 1.90. He scored more per minute than Kadri, Nylander, Marleau, and Brown. Ennis did it playing the majority of his playing time with the offensive black hole that is Frederik Guathier.
His next two most common linemates were Par Lindholm and Josh Leivo.
It is harder to score goals against fourth liners with Par Lindholm and Freddie Gauthier, than it is to score goals against first liners with John Tavares and Mitch Marner.
There is no telling where the Toronto Maple Leafs could have gotten to this year if they’d had a coach with the creativity to try Ennis higher in the lineup.
Ennis played great, when given the opportunity. Unfortunately for the Leafs, they were giving eight minutes per game to Ennis while hoping Pattie Marleau could leadership the puck into the net for 14 minutes per night.
It’s an A for Ennis.