Toronto Maple Leafs: Time For Nick Ritchie to Get Demoted

The Toronto Maple Leafs could use a change to their first line.

For some context, when the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Nick Ritchie, I was ecstatic. A 6-foot-2, 230 pound left-winger to replace Zach Hyman seemed like the right move to make.

Coming off a 15-goal season, a $2.5M deal for two years looked like a great deal. It still could be very good value, but the more I think about it, the more this question comes up.

If Ritchie at $2.5M was such good value, why didn’t the Boston Bruins re-sign him? I knew they needed to make room for Taylor Hall and others, but by all accounts, Ritchie enjoyed his time there and he wanted to re-join the team.

As Boston typically does, it looks like they may have won another battle with Toronto.

Toronto Maple Leafs Need to Shake up 1st Line

After watching every minute of the first four games, I was shocked to see that Ritchie leads the team in hits. It doesn’t feel like he’s as physically engaging as his size would suggest, but the numbers tell me different.

Michael Bunting seems like he’s engaging more with the body, but he has six less hits than Ritchie on the season.

Regarding of what the hit stats say, the biggest statistic with Ritchie in four games is his point total. He’s been given the opportunity to play on the team’s top line and has yet to score a point. When you play with Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and/or John Tavares, you should get a point by accident, but it’s yet to happen.

Of all the forwards who have played in four games this year, Ritchie is the only one without a point thus far. Though, to be fair, the Toronto Maple Leafs have played some hot goalies and have not scored as many goals as they may otherwise have.

Four games is not a huge sample size, but in my opinion, it’s long enough to know what you have. Ritchie’s size should be a huge factor for that line, but he looks out of place, especially playing beside Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

Marner and Matthews are way too skilled for Ritchie and he can’t keep up. He’s lost on the ice and is spinning around not knowing where to go, when he should just head to the net and create a screen for a shot on net.

If the Leafs like the trio of Michael Bunting, John Tavares and William Nylander and also like the idea of a shutdown line of Alex Kerfoot, David Kampf and Ondrej Kase, then there’s only one solution.

Send Ritchie to the fourth line to muck and grind beside Pierre Engvall and Wayne Simmonds and send Jason Spezza up to the first line to drink the fountain of youth beside Marner and Matthews.

Spezza looks awesome through four games. His age would suggest that the team shouldn’t play him 20 minutes per night, but if he can handle it, it could really reenergize him for the rest of the year.

Spezza knows how to play with skilled players, because he is one himself. He’ll be able to help create space and chip in a few goals besides those guys and I think it could really work.

I may be crazy but this could be a fun experiment for the next few weeks, as Spezza deserves an opportunity for more ice-time after his first four games, whereas Ritchie deserves to be demoted.