Why Do the Toronto Maple Leafs Give Fringe Players a Shot?

The Toronto Maple Leafs training camp began this week.

The Toronto Maple Leafs had one of their least active summers in recent memory.  After losing to the Montreal Canadiens in seven games (in one of the least likely, flukiest results in NHL history) the Leafs were content to tinker at the margins and return with mostly the same team.

Given the terribly desperate and shortsighted moves that dominated the summer (OEL, Seth Jones, Zach Hyman, Ristolainen, etc.) the Leafs were probably smart to stay out of the fray.

One thing they did, however, was give training camp tryouts to two former highly touted potential stars whose careers have not gone as expected.

The question is why?

Toronto Maple Leafs and the PTO

The Leafs have given second chances to former first round pick Joshua Ho-Sang, and former KHL scoring champ Nikita Gusev.  If there is one question that keeps coming up in our comments section, it’s “why?”.

Why do Gusev and Ho Sang still get tryouts even though they are 24 and 28?

The answer is because they are first line talents who , for whatever reason, have not firmly established themselves as NHL players. If they weren’t insanely talented, teams would just use training camp to evaluate 18 year olds. It might be a longshot for either Ho-Sang or Gusev to click at this point, but it sometimes happens, so there is no real risk for the Leafs to give them a shot.

Nikita Gusev, two seasons ago, scored at a first-line rate of 2.29 points per 60.  Josh Ho-Sang, over the three seasons where the Islanders played him scored at a rate of 1.71 points per 60 minutes of ice-time. Anything above 1.6 is considered second line scoring and anything over 2.0 is considered first-line scoring.  (naturalstattrick.com).

Either player can be cut loose over the next couple of weeks with no risk to the Leafs. If either player is deemed worthy of further investment, that investment is likely going to be of the league minimum variety.

And both players have super-star upside.

Now, there is a very small chance either player hits that upside.  Most players who don’t establish themselves as NHL players before they are 23 never do.  But that doesn’t mean it never happens.

The NHL once had to change a rule because Sergei Makarov won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year at the age of 31.  Martin St. Louis, hall of famer, didn’t establish himself as an NHL player until he was 25 and didn’t “breakout” until he was 28.  Mark Giordano, Tim Tomas and Brad Marchand are other examples of late blooming star players.

Toronto Maple Leafs fans are also probably familiar with Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion, two MLB castoffs who didn’t break out until their late 20s then posted multiple MVP worthy seasons.

Even music Legend Steve Earle didn’t get his first album deal until he was 31.  (The classic 80s outlaw country masterpiece Guitar Town).

The point is – it happens.  So rarely that it is always a big deal, but it does happen.   And given the risk vs reward, it’s obviously a smart decision to take on Gusev and Ho-Sang.

The reason these guys get chance after chance is that their talent level is well above most established NHL players.  If things click for either one, suddenly the Leafs are an even more dangerous team than we thought.