Toronto Maple Leafs 2020 Player Grades for Goalies and Defensemen

Cody Ceci

Ceci was signed last summer when the Toronto Maple Leafs found themselves with a little bit of extra cap room.

Given that there was essentially no risk, they signed Ceci to see if maybe the right handed former first round pick could find his game on a better team.

He could not.

It was unfair of Babcock to try and make him a top-pairing player, but Ceci couldn’t handle the role.

With just one goal in 56 games, and eight points overall, Ceci contributed nothing offensively.

On deference he wasn’t much better.  Overall he was a negative impact player and did not return value on the contract the Leafs gave him.

The team relies on his for penalty killing, but there is no evidence that they should.   It should be an easy decision to replace Ceci with Sandin when the season starts again, but the Leafs may be reluctant to remove one of their only right shooting defensemen.