Toronto Maple Leafs: Over-Rated/Under-Rated

The Toronto Maple Leafs will (hopefully) get back to action in just a few weeks.

With training camp set to begin in mere days, and the play-in vs the Blue Jackets scheduled to begin later this month, Toronto Maple Leafs hockey is (maybe?) coming back and not a minute too soon.

Honestly, I don’t care if it’s 40 degrees outside, the thought of daily triple headers later this summer is awesome.

But in the meantime, let’s do a game of overrated/underrated.

You know how it works, you just throw something out and say if it’s overrated or underrated.

Toronto Maple Leafs Over/Underrated

Morgan Rielly: Underrated.   Most people read too much into the defensive deficiencies, forgetting that the only way to view hockey properly is holistically.

Rielly has the puck and he drives play.  He might not be good at defense, but he rarely has to play it.  He’s a top ten NHL defenseman, and Leafs fans take it for granted, not realizing the elite #1 defenseman they constantly fantasize has been here the whole time.

Prior to this season, in each of the last two seasons Rielly was one of only three defenseman to play top competition, post a positive possession rating and score over 50 points.

What he has done in his career without ever having a quality partner is astounding.

Alex Kerfoot: Crazy Underrated.  He provides the best defense on the team (among forwards), and he can play wing or centre, and he scored at the same per/minute rate as John Tavares.

If you had the minutes and wingers to make it work Keeping Nazem Kadri, it would have been better to do so.  But Kerfoot is younger, cheaper, faster and better at the things the Toronto Maple Leafs don’t have in abundance.

Summer Hockey: Underrated.  The heat sucks, staying inside and watching hockey will make you feel like you’re already enjoying the sweet temperatures of autumn.

Sheldon Keefe: Underrated.  The Toronto Maple Leafs started to play a system of possession heavy hockey that could revolutionize the game.  When Keefe was given anything close to a healthy lineup, his teams absolutely dominated.

He’ll be going up against the old-school predictability of John Torterella, and this should give the Leafs a massive edge.

Keefe is going to end up being the best coach in the NHL.

Kyle Dubas: Underrated, even by his supporters.  All Dubas has done since coming to Toronto is orchestrate a series of one-sided trade victories (Hyman, Kessel, Muzzin) and one controversial trade that only looks bad because people underrate both players who came back for Kadri. 

Dubas also signed the best UFA in NHL history, managed to keep all three of his young core player, didn’t cave to pressure about trading Nylander, kept both Kapanen and Johnsson when no one thought he could, and set up the best salary cap situation in the NHL.

On top of that, Dubas has made several intelligent moves like trading down in the draft, and acquiring and flipping Robin Lehner for an extra pick.

Oh, and he used later picks to snag top prospects Rasmus Sandin and Nick Robertson, while constantly pilfering the KHL of its top talent.

Overall, I’d say the Toronto Maple Leafs themselves are pretty underrated.