A Fully Healthy Toronto Maple Leafs Roster Would Ice an ELITE 4th Line

The Toronto Maple Leafs have had to deal with a lot of injuries this season.

While their teams that have had more man games lost, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had their injuries concentrated exclusively on impact players.

Aside from injuries to Andersen,Hyman, Johnsson, Ceci, Dermott and Kerfoot this year, the Leafs have usually had at least one of Nylander, Tavares, Marner, Hyman, Muzzin or Rielly missing from every game.

But what if they were healthy?

If they were healthy, their team would pretty crazy.  With the exception of the Penguins, no one can match the 1-2 combo of Matthews and Tavares down the middle.  No other team’s fourth best forward is equal to William Nylander, and few, if any, teams can match a third line of Johnsson-Kerfoot-Kapanen.

But one thing that really sets the Leafs apart is the fourth line they’d ice if healthy.

Toronto Maple Leafs Fourth Line

Assuming the Leafs had a fully healthy roster, their fourth line would feature Jason Spezza centering Kyle Clifford and Pierre Engvall.

Now, from a name-brand perspective, that might sound like much, but if you dive into the stats, this is a level of effectiveness that is unmatched around the league, for a fourth line.

Pierre Engvall has been a revelation this year.  He is a solid penalty killer, but more importantly, he’s a versatile, skilled, intelligent player who can play up and down the lineup.

Engvall has only eight goals and seven assists in 42 games this year, but almost all of that is 5v5 scoring.  He scored 1.62 points per 60, which ranks him 188th in the league.  That’s low-end second line production, playing on a team where he is not expected to be, nor used as, a primary scoring option.

With Engvall on the ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs get 52% Coris, 50% of the shots, 54% of the goals, 53% of the scoring chances, and 51% of the expected goals.

Talented and creative with the puck, while being really solid at defense, Engvall is an elite fourth line option.

Here’s the link to a chart that compares Engvall to a familiar fourth line grinder.

Jason Spezza is rocking the second power play unit, and having a renaissance season in Toronto.

Spezza has 24 points, but gets limited ice-time 5v5.  He has been solid when called upon, however.  Spezza has 2.06 points per 60, which is first line production, whenever he’s on the ice.  He’s scoring more points per minute than Jack Eichel.

Spezza has over 50% on-ice stats across the board, including an impressive 54% expected goals rating.

Again, this is an elite fourth liner.

Clifford hasn’t exactly thrived yet in Toronto.  Owing mostly to several ill-timed penalties (not all of them fair calls either), Clifford hasn’t yet shown the game the Leafs expect from him.

However, let’s cut the guy some slack and not judge him on just ten games with the Leafs.  (At the time of writing). Clifford has excellent advanced stats, and seems to be an excellent play driver and defensive player.  He doesn’t really have much offense to his game, but he can play with skill players and not drag them down, something that very few players of his ilk can do. (All stats for this article, naturalstattrick.com).

Based on the last few seasons of statistics, Clifford is, like Spezza and Engvall an elite fourth line option in comparison to what the other teams are icing.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have put together a very deep team that, if healthy, would be putting together a fourth line that is absolutely insane.  One reason I’m so optimistic about this team, is that if they ever get healthy, it’s going to be pretty hard to shut down a team that can throw this type of scoring talent out on the fourth line.