The Toronto Maple Leafs injury situation is being massively overblown.
While it’s true that the three name-brand members of the Toronto Maple Leafs defense are injured and will miss some time, their two actual best defenseman from last season are still on the roster.
Last season, playing lower in the lineup than the Leafs three star defensemen, Rasmus Sandin and Timothy Liljegren both took steps towards stardom, by posting absolutely bonkers numbers. The rumours are interesting, but not necessary.
And while it is important to point out that these numbers were posted from the bottom of the lineup, and that the two young defenders were not playing the toughest competition, it is equally important to point out that every team has 2 or more third-pairing defenseman, and that the vast majority of other third-pairing defenseman did not post anywhere close to the numbers Sandin and Liljgren did.
Little known fact about the NHL: If you can post elite numbers low in the lineup, the probability that you could post similar numbers higher in the lineup is almost 100%. There just are not that many stars to play against, and about nine out of ten NHL players have indistinguishable talent levels from one another.
The Leafs acquired Connor Timmins yesterday, a depth piece with some potential, which is good – you can’t have too many NHL players on defense. But do they still need to make a big trade? Do they need to acquire a Chychrun or the rough equivalent?
Not right now they don’t.
Toronto Maple Leafs Do Not Need a Big Trade
Sure, maybe later on at the trade deadline it might be worth bringing in someone, perhaps Dmitri Orlov, depending on the circumstances at the time, but for now, the Leafs should really be focused on finding out what they have, instead of trying to plug holes that might not exist.
In the summer, I was begging the Leafs to get rid of Muzzin. They clearly would have if it was at all possible, but he has an iron clad No Movement Clause. He wasn’t very good last year, and based on a reasonable assumption of what he’s got left, isn’t being missed right now.
It’s easy to throw out a name and make it seem like the Leafs are in trouble, but what nobody seems to want to admit is that Muzzin being unable to play and thus getting back his salary cap hit, is the best case scenario for the Leafs as a team.
It’s a major bummer for them as humans, but Muzzin being out is a good thing for the team’s championship aspirations.
As for Brodie, he is an effective and underrated star player who is apparently ageless. His loss hurts, but not as much as you’d think, since it just gives the Leafs a chance to find out what they have in other players.
An oblique injury is extremely hard to heal, and it might best just to shut him down for a while and play the kids., learn to play without him, then when he comes back you’ve got a great addition to the team. It’s not the worst thing that can happen, because it’s almost time to move on from him anyways, and it’s important to know what you’re falling back onto.
It’s not that the Leafs will be a better team without Muzzin, Rielly and Brodie, but being forced to test the limits of their other players is likely one of the best things that could happen.
When it is time for Rielly and Brodie to come back, they will return to a team that now knows that Sandin and Liljegren are top pairing players.
Suddenly the Leafs will have a really, really deep blue-line. (To be honest, they started the year with 11 NHL defenseman, only to recall Kral and Hollowell, making them 13 NHL defenders deep now, if you still count Muzzin, then him Rielly, Brodie, Liljegren, Sandin, Holl, Giordano, Mete, Timmins, Dahlstrom and Benn are the other 11).
In the interim, we get to see how Mac Hollowell and Philip Kral and Victor Mete look. All of them are decent enough NHL options, and two of them have decent potential. Add in Nick Robertson, Joey Anderson, Adam Gaudette, and Semyon Der-Arguchintsov, and the Leafs have a lot of internal options to explore up front too before even thinking about a big trade.