A Very Early Look at the Toronto Maple Leafs Power Play Options

The Toronto Maple Leafs had the NHL’s 6th best Power Play  in the 2019-2020 season (in terms of conversion percentage) under now-departed Assistant Coach Paul McFarland. After offseason moves, the team will be able to field two formidable PP units, and will have more options for deployment.

The major changes made by McFarland to the setup of the Power Play last season were moving John Tavares up to the “bumper” spot in the high slot, and moving William Nylander up to the first unit as the net-front presence. Although the results over the long-term were there, there were many stretches during the season when the Power Play would stagnate.

While most of that had to do with the Leafs insistence on using a predictable and easily defended zone entry strategy, some of the struggles also had to do with the players being somewhat uncomfortable in their positions.

Tavares was awesome on the PP in 2018-2019 when he was used in front of the net – similarly to James Van Riemsdyk in years prior – potting 10 goals for the Leafs. Last season in the bumper position, Tavares was forced to be more involved in creating space for Marner and Matthews to operate, which led to an increase in assists and PP points overall, but forced him to be more opportunistic hunting for his own shot.

Interestingly, the high slot position was once one of the Leafs  most effective goal-scoring positions on the PP, with Nazem Kadri starring in the role in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, scoring 12 goals each season from that spot, and Tyler Bozak producing there as well. It was only once Tavares came to the Leafs and they loaded up the first unit, pairing Matthews and Marner, that the bumper position struggled. (Stats via Hockey-Reference)

With Matthews and Marner on the wings in the 1-3-1 setup used by the Leafs, the focus is (rightfully so) on the cross-ice pass for the one-timer. This results in the bumper being used as a decoy for most of the action, trying to open up the cross-ice seam for either Marner or Matthews. Tavares still found ways to be effective on the PP, but he no longer had the tap-ins around the net that Marner and Matthews would set up for him the year prior.

These issues are minor considering that the Toronto Maple Leafs converted on 23.1% of their PP opportunities , but can cause problems when teams have time to scout and game plan for their attack, such as in the playoffs (15.4% on the PP, although with an extremely small sample size). Ironing out these inefficiencies will be crucial to the Leafs success, but look for that improvement to come from within rather than via any of the new editions – at least on the first unit. (Stats via TSN)