It certainly seem as though we have been waiting for top Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Rasmus Sandin to “wow” us for quite some time now.
Taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs with the 29th overall pick in the 2018 draft, Sandin’s stock started to rise as he immediately produced in the AHL as a teenaged-defenseman (28 points in 44 games and 10 in 13 playoff contests for the Marlies in 2018-2019) and by scoring at just under a point-per-game pace for Sweden in the World Junior Championship that same year. (stats hockeydb.com).
Sandin improved upon those numbers in 2019-2020, notching 15 points in 21 games for the Marlies and then saw his stock reach towering heights as he was named the best defenseman in the 2020 IIHF World Junior Championship for the bronze-winning Sweden team, where he tallied ten points in seven games (all stats from eliteprospects.com).
So while it may have been a tad anti-climactic, if not disappointing, to see Sandin suit up in a mere 9 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs last season, the fact of the matter is that Rasmus Sandin is only 21-years-old and was born in the year 2000. Yes, Tomas Kaberle, Dimitry Yushkevich, Bryan Berard and Danny Markov were the primary defensive-core for the Toronto Maple Leafs when Rasmus Sandin was just a baby.
Nevertheless, emotions have been running high in Leaf-land, where the team just can’t seem to get over the hump (or get to the hump, to be more precise) in the post-season and now, with a just over a month until the start of the 2021-2022 season, it looks like the Leafs are going to ice a similar yet slightly more flawed team than the previous season.
Here’s how the Leafs top-six should look like on the defensive side of things come opening night:
Rielly-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl
Sandin-Dermott
Both Sandin and Dermott shoot left and both are comfortable playing on the right-side, so that bottom-pairing could be reversed, depending on how each of those players acclimate to playing on their off-side.
What numbers can we expect to see from Sandin this year?
Thus far Sandin has played 37 games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, scoring one goal and 12 points in 37 games. He has averaged 14:24 of ice-time in that span and has played to a CF% of 55.3 with 59.2% of his starts being in the offensive-zone (all numbers from hockey-reference.com). He should see significantly more playing-time this year and will get a chance to audition for the role of power-play QB, a role that Rielly struggled in last year and a role that doesn’t seem to have many other candidates.
I’d love to see a veteran stabilize that final-pairing and potentially allow Sandin to play to his strengths (much like Ron Hainsey with Morgan Rielly some years back) but Dermott is a fine, young defenseman who, hopefully, can find some chemistry with the young Swede.
Barring injury (and assuming he receives regular playing time), I predict a 40+ point season from Sandin buoyed by some generous power-play usage.
The Toronto Maple Leafs can’t afford any more wasted years, but they also can’t afford to waste any more cheap, productive prospect years. Hopefully they give Sandin a chance to flourish this season.