James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs are such a strong team that their worst players are all pretty good. Like the smart team that they are, the Leafs have stocked up on elite skilled players, and rounded out the bottom of their lineup with excellent depth pieces.
Do you really have a worst player when your fourth line is Clifford-Spezza and Engvall? Or when you have Rasmus Sandin and you are considering not even playing him?
The Leafs did have a few disappointments this year, however. Freddie Andersen had his worst year, and despite a solid month or two spread through out the season, he wasn’t able to live up to the previous couple years’ magic.
But if your worst player is your all-star goalie, how bad can you be? Still, even an average season from Andersen would have seen the Leafs finish a lot higher in the standings.
Same with Cody Ceci. Despite being an offensive black-hole and not really bring a whole lot more than some size and pedigree to the table, he’s not that bad.
Like Tyson Barrie, if you subtract the Mike Babcock games from his season, Ceci wasn’t all that bad. Babcock had him basically unsheltered on a top line, and it wasn’t working.
Afterwards though, even when Ceci went with Rielly, Keefe really leaned into Muzzin and Holl for defensive zone starts and shifts vs other team’s stars.
Ultimately , it looks like the Leafs will play Ceci to star, but how long can you really leave a player like Rasmus Sandin on your bench for?
The guy I guess I should mention is Kapanen. By expected goals, he is a great player – only problem is that despite getting a ton of minutes with two of the NHL’s best offensive centres, Kapanen could not buy a goal this year.
Almost all NHL players will eventually match their expected goals with their actual goals, but Kapanen is only going to get so many opportunities with Tavares and Matthews, and he’s got to be better.