The Toronto Maple Leafs had a bit of a weird season.
Touted as the NHL’s up-and-coming team, the Toronto Maple Leafs stumbled this season on their way to what we hope is an eventual Stanley Cup victory.
The Leafs turned over a third of their roster last summer, and gave Mike Babcock a reprieve despite it being clear that he was not on the same page as the rest of the organization.
It proved to be a mistake as the Leafs started awfully and eventually lost six in a row, which finally allowed GM Kyle Dubas to install his preferred (and by all appearances, superior) choice behind the bench.
Babcock was terrible and he owns a lot of the disappointment for this year’s regular season. But there are other players on the roster who were not any more helpful than Babcock.
So who was the Leafs worst player?
Toronto Maple Leafs Worst Player
There are some pretty decent candidates.
Some might say Tyson Barrie, but he was actually the 4th highest scoring defenseman in the NHL after Keefe took over. Blame Babcock for the negative value Barrie provided in the first quarter of the season.
What about Gauthier? He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t horrible either. In fact, he wasn’t anything. According to @JFresh’s player cards, Guathier was the perfect replacement player – neither costing nor helping his team at all. He was worth 0 WAR.
Another candidate is Cody Ceci, who was truly terrible.
Easily the worst move of Kyle Dubas’ career, signing Ceci never made any sense. Babcock inexplicably attempted to make a first pairing player out of him and it was a disaster.
Ceci provided no value offensively, no value defensively, no value on special teams, and overall was one of the worst players in the NHL this year.
He was definitely the Toronto Maple Leafs worst position player, but even he doesn’t get the title of Worst Player of the Year.
It pains me to say it, but I have to award the dubious distinction of Worst Player of the Year to one of my favorite players, and my all-time favorite goalie.
Yes, Freddie Andersen was the Leafs worst player this year.
In previous years, Freddie was the team MVP, and the Leafs likely wouldn’t have made the playoffs in any of the last three years without him.
I don’t know why – since team defense was actually much better that it has been in any previous season since the Leafs got Andersen – but it’s true.
According to my Jfresh Player Cards, Andersen was better than 80% of the NHL’s goalies last year, but just 38% of them this year.
Goalies are crazy, you can’t predict them, and even superstar should-be-Vezina Trophy winners like Freddie Andersen can have an off year.
The Leafs need Andersen, and I predict that he is a much better player than this year would indicate, and I predict that this off year is just an anomaly.
There is no reason for the Toronto Maple Leafs to seek out a new starter or to give more starts to Jack Campbell. Andersen is bound to bounce back.
But he was the worst player on the roster this season.