Toronto Maple Leafs: Ron Hainsey Can’t Play Third Pairing

The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumoured to be making a very bad mistake.

The rumour is that the Toronto Maple Leafs would be interested in, and probably even will, bring back Ron Hainsey on a one-year deal to fortify their defense.

This would be a terrible move, as I discussed here.

The Ron Hainsey is old, terrible and needs to retire.  If he won’t retire, he needs to play for another team.   Ron Hainsey should in no way, shape or form be allowed to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, in any role, ever again.

I can’t believe this is out there.  Bob McKenzie has a great reputation, but let’s hope he has got this one wrong.

That is a hard pass on Ron Hainsey.

No Way, Ron!

Now, I get why people like Hainsey – he’s a no-nonsense dude who works hard and is known as a team leader.  That’s fine.

It’s common sense to think if he was all-right on the top pairing that he’d be more than adequate on the bottom pairing.  But that is faulty logic for three reasons.

Reason 1: It is commonly said in advanced stats circles that a player’s teammates have 5x more influence on a player’s game than competition.

This means that if you play with Morgan Rielly against top competition, you are more likely to do better than if you play with a worse player against bottom pairing competition.

So if the Leafs were to re-sign Hainsey, their best play would be to keep him with Rielly.  But since we know that no other top pairing defenseman in the NHL had a worse partner last year than Rielly did, this is a bad idea.

This should end all discussion about redeploying Ron Hainsey.

Reason #2:   Ron Hainsey was a sub-50% CF player whose three most common linemates were Morgain Rielly, Mitch Marner and John Tavares.

That is the highest scoring defenseman, and two of the three highest scoring forwards on a points-per-minute basis.  Somehow, with the majority of his minutes coming with a veritable all-star line, he managed a scant .75 points per minute and a possession rating under 50%.

All stats naturalstattrick.com

Everyone he skated with normally did better without Hainsey on the ice than with him.

That is pathetic.

Reason #3: He is not getting better, since he’s 39.  Only worse. Literally any player the Toronto Maple Leafs might consider using in his stead would be better – Timothy Liljegren, Rasmus Sandin, Justin Holl, Mac Hollowell, Jesper Lindgren, Calle Rosen or Andreas Borgman.  They’re all cheaper too!

So to sum up: Ron Hainsey had absolutely brutal stats, and they were even worse considering who he played with. He is so old that his game will only continue to decline, and lowering him in the lineup will make him worse, not better.

The idea of signing Ron Hainsey – to play anywhere – is bad.  Keep in mind that I write about the Toronto Maple Leafs for a living when I say this: It’s the worst idea I have ever heard.

Full stop.