Toronto Maple Leafs Get Good Results, Use Travis Dermott in Top Role

The NHL is a league in which three days can make a big difference, as the Toronto Maple Leafs have shown this week.

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered the All-Star Break “losers of four of five,” and now they’ve “picked up points in four of five.”

They should call that loser point you get for losing in overtime the “narrative” point, since it allows you to pretty much spin the record in any direction you choose.

Still , despite the narrative appeal, it is still a great thing that a team in the midst of a playoff race is able to pick up seven out of their last ten points.

Especially since for three of those games they had no Jake Muzzin, and Morgan Rielly has missed all five.

Toronto Maple Leafs vs Dallas

Like the game in Nashville on Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs weren’t exactly great last night against the Stars, but they got the job done.

One of the reasons I’ve been so positive about this team while others are not, is that they’ve got such a preposterous collection of talent that they can win games when they don’t play great.

Last night the Stars carried the majority of the play, especially in a terrible second period, but the Leafs were able to make their chances count, and Andersen was good enough to shut the door.

In an interesting development, the Leafs most used 5v5 pairing last night was Travis Dermott and Tyson Barrie, with Dermott leading the Leafs in 5v5 TOI.

I thought Dermott had a great game, and that is probably because the Leafs scored three times when he was on the ice.  Statistically, he did not appear to have a good game at all.  Overall, I’d usually shade my evaluation towards the stats as opposed to my eyes, but for his first game ever in a #1 role, I think I’ll take the +3.  (All stats naturalstattrick.com).

I was looking up some Dermott stats the other day, and he’s been a surprisingly effective player.  The fact that he has been mostly a third pairing guy who doesn’t seem to score much has no-doubt impacted the way he is viewed but what can’t be denied is that he’s been extremely effective.

For instance: how many 23 or under defensemen in the NHL have played 130 games of 53-55% hockey (which is to say that his team gets 53% or better of the shot-attempts, shots, goals, scoring chances etc. when he’s on the ice)?

The answer is that there are only 12 other defensemen in the NHL who are 23 or under and have played as many games as  Travis Dermott has.   Sergachev, McAvoy, Dunn, Hannifin, Carlo, Provorov, Girard, Werenski, Heiskanan, Chabot and Chychrun.

Those are Dermott’s peers and he’s got better stats than most of them.  Now obviously a lot of his stats have come in a sheltered role, and a few of his peers are already playing top line minutes, but Dermott has been excellent no matter how you look at it.

It is also worth pointing out that few 3rd pairing guys match his stats either.

People always fret about the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line, but with  Dermott, Sandin, and Liljegren all 23 or under, I think the future is very bright.