Predicting the Toronto Maple Leafs Game One Blue-Line

The Toronto Maple Leafs will have only one returning defenseman from last year’s opening night roster.

Igor Ozhiganov has left the Toronto Maple Leafs and returned to the KHL.  Travis Dermott is injured, and both Ron Hainsey and Nikita Zaitsev are now gone.   Alas, even Jake Gardiner has betrayed us and moved to Carolina.

That means that only Morgan Rielly – the should have been Norris Trophy Winner – will return from last year’s first game.

Who will make up the rest of the Leafs blue line?  Glad you asked.

Toronto Maple Leafs Defense

With Dermott injured, it seems to be accepted that Cody Ceci will start on Morgan Rielly’s right side.

That in turn makes the second pairing Jake Muzzin and Tyson Barrie.

But who plays on the third?

There are many options:

Martin Marincin, Justin Holl, Kevin Gravel, Ben Harpur, Jordan Schmaltz, as well as rookies Timothy Liljegren and Rasmus Sandin.

Jordan Schmaltz is an intriguing option for me.  His NHL time has been mostly bad, and despite making an honest attempt to do so, I can’t find a lot of evidence that suggests he’ll be a difference maker in the NHL.

I wrote this a couple weeks ago:

"Schmaltz hasn’t scored at the NHL level because he has only ever played with duds for ten minutes per night. Prior to being drafted, he was considered a puck moving defensemen with so-so defensive skills.Perhaps the Toronto Maple Leafs took a chance on him because he -at least at lower levels – is a decent puck mover, and they believe that in the right situation he might live up to his former potential."

According to the Athletic’s Jonas Siegal, the Leafs traded for him almost immediately after hiring Dave Hakstol, his old coach.

To me this suggest, along with the scouting reports that site Schmaltz as a strong puck mover with an intelligent game, that the Leafs see some real potential in him.

If Timothy Liljegren doesn’t have an amazing training camp, I think Schmaltz will start on the Leafs 3rd pairing.

The other spot on the third pairing? That’s going to go to Martin Marincin.

Because Marincin is a player with almost no offensive ability, he only really gets noticed when he screws up.  But generally, he’s a steady player who posts good stats when he does play. (All stats from naturalstattrick.com).

He is an excellent penalty killer, and with Zaitsev and Hainsey both moving to new teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs will need a new go-to set of defenseman on the PK.

Expect them to be Muzzin and Marincin.  Marincin isn’t a fan favorite, but it isn’t even really reasonable to have a strong opinion about him.  He’s a perfectly fine third pairing option, and he’s got the versatility of being able to play both sides of the ice.

He’s not going to wow you, but he can certainly kill penalties and provide break-even play from the bottom pairing.

A Marincin-Schmaltz bottom pairing isn’t sexy, but it’s statistically sound and has a small amount of upside.

The great thing though, is if it doesn’t work, the Toronto Maple Leafs have a ton of options.