The Toronto Maple Leafs are the best team in the NHL since they changed coaches.
After a Christmas break, the Toronto Maple Leafs will be back in action today.
One thing that everyone seems to talk about is how the Leafs need to improve their defense, but what those people always miss is that they already did.
When Sheldon Keefe was hired, one of the biggest changes he made was pairing Morgan Rielly with Tyson Barrie, giving each player the best partner they’ve ever had in the NHL.
Toronto Maple Leafs and Tyson Barrie
Barrie was not working under Babcock. Despite some decent peripheral stats, the former 60 point defenseman wasn’t scoring, and he didn’t look like the dynamic player the Toronto Maple Leafs thought they acquired in the summer.
But since Keefe took over, Barrie looks like a superstar.
Tyson Barrie leads all Leafs defenseman with a 54% possession rating.
He is getting 53% of the shot-share, he’s getting 53% of the scoring chances and 52% of the expected goals.
Those are FANTASTIC NUMBERS.
When you look at Barrie’s numbers with and without Morgan Rielly, what jumps out is that since being paired up, the Leafs are getting 65% of the goals while they are on the ice.
That is incredible, but no players could hope to sustain that because you’d be the best of all-time if you did. What is more important than the gaudy results so far, is the 55% expected-goals rating.
This year in the NHL there are less than ten top-pairing defenseman with at least a 55% expected-goals rating.
Alex Pietrangelo, who Toronto Maple Leafs fans are always wishing to acquire, hasn’t had a 55% expected goals rating in six years, and has done it just twice in his career. (All stats naturalstattrick.com).
Pietrangelo is one of the best defenseman of his era, a sure-fire Hall of Famer and a legitimate super-star.
When paired with Morgan Rielly, Tyson Barrie is outperforming him.
By a mile.
There’s been a lot of talk about the two being a defensive liability, but in fact that is just confirmation bias – if they make a mistake (which everyone does) people notice and remember it because they expect and look for it. If you get 65% of the goals, and 55% of the goals if you account for good luck, you are not a liability, you are a Norris Candidate.
They are a legitimate super-star pairing and a rock-solid first pairing that is among the best in the NHL since they were combined.
Since Keefe took over, Barrie is second in the NHL in 5v5 scoring among defenseman, and is scoring at a 56 point pace. Weirdly he only has 1 power-play point, so the scoring is is actually pretty incredible.
Suffice to say, the Toronto Maple Leafs didn’t just acquire a new coach when they fired Mike Babcock, they acquired a # 1 defenseman too.
Tyson Barrie has arguably been the NHL’s best defenseman since the Leafs fired Mike Babcock.