One Way to Instantly Make the Toronto Maple Leafs Better

The Toronto Maple Leafs have failed to advance past the first round of the playoffs for the last two seasons, both in excruciating ways.

The Toronto Maple Leafs were goalied by the Blue Jackets, and the Canadiens capitalized on fifty or so lucky breaks to get by the Leafs, but at the end of the day, they still lost.

The flat cap caused by the pandemic really hurt the Leafs, and one thing that could have helped them was having some young prospects who could take up minutes on cheap deals.

Unfortunately, Dubas hasn’t been in charge long enough to see most of his work come to fruition, and the previous regime was absolutely horrible at drafting.  Had the Leafs been able to have even one player take  a star turn while on an Entry Level deal, things could have been much different.

There are signs that that may happen this year with the early season play of Rasmus Sandin, though the jury is still out.  He is 100% an NHL player though, and at the very last a capable third pairing guy.

But can he move Justin Holl down the lineup or give the Leafs some leverage in the Morgan Rielly situation? That remains to be seen.

Toronto Maple Leafs and Rasmus Sandin

The Leafs rookie has looked great so far this year, displaying a calmness and intelligence with the puck at almost all times.  He’s an excellent passer, and seems to be a solid driver of possession.

So far he’s got just three assists in eight games, which puts him on a 30 point pace.  Consider that the Leafs have averaged just two goals per game so far, this is excellent.  When the team scores more, which they will, Sandin will also score more.  (stats naturalstattrick.com).

He looks right now to be a good bet for 40 points, which is excellent offensive production for a defenseman.

The Leafs could get instantly better right now by giving the three and a half extra minutes they are giving to Justin Holl to Rasmus Sandin, who I believe warrants a promotion to the top four immediately.   This doesn’t mean they need to deploy the players in the same way, and so this may require shaking up the entire blue line, but I think it would pay off.

Sandin is second on the team (microscopically) to Travis Dermott (who played one less game) in shot-attempts per minute, and he’s first in shot-attempts against per minute.  The Leafs are getting over 71% of the puck possession when he is on the ice, which is incredible.

Sandin has a 63% expected-goals rating, and he’s looked great all season (except the one play probably everyone remembers) even though he has a 96% PDO.  Sure, he plays slightly easier competition than the top-four does, but even besides the numbers, you can see when he’s playing that he’s better than a third pairing player.  He’s extremely talented, and he’s earned extra minutes.

Immediate promotion to the top 4 is necessary.  Like I said earlier this season, I would not be surprised at all if Rasmus Sandin is the Leafs best defenseman by the end of the season.  At the very least, he’s been the second best one they’ve had so far this year.