3rd star – Pierre Engvall
Pierre Engvall started the season as an afterthought on a Toronto Maple Leafs team overflowing with fourth line options (Nick Shore, Pontus Aberg, Garrett Wilson, Dmytro Timashov, Jason Spezza, Nic Petan etc).
The former seventh round pick surprisingly made the team and carved out a regular shift for himself. Envall has been one of the biggest surprises on the Leafs this year.
The objective in hockey is to score more goals than your opponents. No Maple Leafs player fared better at doing so than Pierre Engvall. No, seriously.
He was on for nine goals for and just four against at 5v5. His Goals-For of 69.23% was best among regulars on the roster, as was his plus-5 differential. (Stats naturalstattrick.com).
Engvall played a big hand in that, too. He picked up points on six of the nine goals he was out for. Each point was primary as well; only Mitch Marner (8) registered more at 5v5.
As if his full-strength success wasn’t enough, Engvall played a hair under 12 minutes on the PK. He was only on for one goal against during that time.
It was a very good month across the board for Engvall, who continues to prove he is an everyday NHL player.