Toronto Maple Leafs: Early Thoughts On the Newest Players

The Toronto Maple Leafs are off to a good start to the 2021 season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 3-1 and would be 4-0 if Ottawa goalie Matt Murray didn’t rob them blind in the first half of game two.  In fact, the Leafs team statistics are near the top of the league and none of their games should have been anywhere close to what the final scores actually were.

Surviving a Freddie Andersen cold streak and an Auston Matthews unlucky streak with a 3-1 record is a a sign that things are going to go very well for this team.  It’s hard to imagine, because it’s barely happened before, but eventually the Leafs are going to get offense and goaltending at the same time and it’s going to be unstoppable.

The off-season saw a ton of turnover, and even though it’s only four games, here are some mini reviews of the new players so far.

Toronto Maple Leafs New Additions

T.J Brodie –  Brodie is third on the Leafs in total ice time, and has been partnered with Morgan Rielly as expected.  A 59% CF indicates that Brodie is fitting in well and off to a great start.

The scoring chances are 41-28 for the Leafs when Brodie has been on the ice, and despite a negative goal differential (meaningless on such a short sample size, his PDO is crazy-low) Brodie has been everything that was expected, i.e a solid player who doesn’t really stand out but who will put up consistently good stats and make the team better at defense.

Everyone knew this was the Leafs most important off-season addition and there’s nothing so far to change that.

Joe Thornton –   This isn’t a typo: Thornton’s Corsi is 68%.  The guy is a puck possession monster and the top line with him on it is better than ever.  When I said the Leafs should stack their top line, I meant with Nylander or Tavares as the third guy. I didn’t know that Joe was still an elite player (and who knows, maybe this won’t last) but so far he sure is.

The Leafs are getting over 60% of the shots when he’s on the ice, and he has an expected goals rating of 64%, but the craziest stat is:

Jimmy Vesey –  In game one I thought he was terrible despite a goal, and other than that, I haven’t noticed him all that much eye-test wise, but the stats are excellent, and Tavares and Nylander are playing like they are two of the best players on earth *which they are* so no complaints here.

If you can get a top six forward for pennies on the dollar, and he’s got the world’s coolest first name and seems like an all-round cool guy, what’s to complain about?   Third strait A grade for sure.

Mikko Lehtonen –  Unfortunately, he has only played for about seven minutes all season and I have no thoughts on him so far.  No preseason is a rough situation for a guy coming over from Europe.  (all stats naturalstattrick.com).

Zach Bogosian –  I am glad that I was correct when he signed and I wrote that he was a bottom pairing guy / seventh defenseman because he’s been brutal. Bad penalties, slow as a turtle, odd decisions, doesn’t fit in on the team at all because every other defenseman will go deep in the zone and the forwards will swap out for him.   There was a moment vs the Jets where Tavares clearly thought this was happening, but Bogosian wouldn’t commit  leading to confusion.

The Leafs are dominating games except when he’s on the ice, when they are getting clobbered.  He’s -3 at 5v5 with no goals being scored for the Leafs with him on the ice.  Normally I’d say small sample size, or mention how bad the goalie has been for him,  but given his other statistics, things don’t seem likely to turn around.  Fact is, he is a terrible player with a whole career of getting bad results when he plays.

Wayne Simmonds –  I was honestly embarrassed watching the intermission and seeing one of the pundits say he thought Simmonds would be the Toronto Maple Leafs most important off-season signing. Really? The fourth liner with several straight years of declining play? The guy who gets five minutes per night and does nothing with them?  What year do these dudes think it is?

His expected goals percentage is 27%, need I say more?