Toronto Maple Leafs Need Emergency Blue-Line Reconfiguration

The Toronto Maple Leafs need help on the blue-line.

The Toronto Maple Leafs currently are without two of their top-four defenseman.  They most likely are never getting Jake Muzzin back.

T.J Brodie is out with an oblique injury, not exactly the best thing to have to heal mid-season, and as should be expected with this type of injury, his time on the shelf has just been extended. 

The Leafs have two defenseman on the verge of stardom, but they’ve got a Morgan Rielly problem, and  while their NHL-level depth is fine, their star power has been sapped .

The problem isn’t one of talent.  The Toronto Maple Leafs have enough within the organization to make their blue-line a top one in the NHL.

They just need their coach to make better decisions.  They need to reconfigure their pairings and personnel.

Toronto Maple Leafs Blue-Line Reconfiguration

Overall, the Leafs are in good shape: Sandin and Liljegren are going to be star players, they have some nice prospects (Niemela, Kokkanen, Hollowell) and, if healthy, TJ Brodie is one of the best and most underrated defenseman in the NHL.

But if TJ Brodie can’t be counted on, the Leafs could be in trouble.

The problem (even assuming Brodie’s health isn’t an issue)  is two-fold.

1. It’s hard to transition from established roles.
2. The established roles no longer work.

A more succinct way to describe the problem would be to say that it’s Morgan Rielly.

He isn’t 22 anymore.  He can’t out-skate his problems anymore.

Don’t get me wrong, Morgan Rielly is an awesome player.  He can help the Leafs and be very beneficial to them.  But deploying him like your number-one defenseman is insane.

The coach needs to stop trying to make Morgan Rielly what he wishes he was, and start using what he actually has.  Pick your spots with Rielly and he’ll tilt the ice in your favor.  You just can’t use him indiscriminately for 28 minutes anymore.

The Leafs best all-round defenseman, and the one with the most talent, is Timothy Liljegren.  He is only slightly worse than Rielly as a puck mover, and 100 x better at the rest of the game.

TJ Brodie helps balance out what Rielly does, but a transition to making that the second pairing is essential, and the timing right now is perfect because without Brodie, the Leafs top pairing is garbage anyways.

Also, Liljegren, who missed Training Camp, is just getting up to speed.

Sandin has had some high-profile errors, but he’s a solid player on the path to stardom.  He and Liljegren need to become the  top pairing starting now.

But most of all, Keefe has to stop with putting slow, basically useless players with Rielly. This “balance” doesn’t work.  Going back to last year with Lyubushkin, Keefe has shown a tendency to try to balance out Rielly with a defensive defenseman.  It’s not a good move.

Better to compliment him with someone with a similar skill set, and pick your spots for when that is going to help the most. (As seen when he’s with Brodie, who, for all his defensive ability, is really just a really smart puck-moving defenseman).

Unfortunately, Benn is not a regular on a contending team at this point.  Just because the guy had a nice couple of games, let’s not get out of control here.

I’ve defended Justin Holl, but he’s the obvious place to improve the team.

Sandin and Lijegren as the top pairing.

Giordano and Brodie to settle things down. (Use Holl here for now).

Rielly and Hollowell for the coach when he wants a goal.

Holl as the 7th dman, and use the team’s assets to acquire a forward, specifically Bo Horvat.

There will never be a better time than TJ Brodie’s return to subtly switch the roles of Rielly and Liljegren.  Morgan Rielly is the Leafs de facto captain and their main leader. He is the longest serving member of the team and one of the best players in Leafs history.

But if the Leafs do not transition him away from #1 Status, they will be in trouble.