Toronto Maple Leafs Awaiting the Arrival of Conor Timmins

The Toronto Maple Leafs acquired Conor Timmins last week but he is yet to play a game.

As everyone knows, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had their league-best defensive depth tested thoroughly with four of their top five defenseman going down and missing significant time.

Even their non-NHL depth like Jordie Benn and Carl Dahlstrom have been unable to stay healthy, and so the Leafs brought in an outside player.

The thing is, when you do that, you usually don’t get so much potential.

The Toronto Maple Leafs and Conor Timmins

In professional sports, most star players make it to the league early.   Players who don’t enter the NHL soon after being drafted are longshots for stardom – which is just basic common sense.

If you enter the NHL early, it’s almost always due to the obvious upside that makes the team forego normal development.  If that upside isn’t obvious, the odds of developing into a star later are lower.

But it does happen.

Look at Timothy Lilgegren, who the Leafs slow-cooked in the minors for years. He is 23 and currently the best defenseman on a contending team.  Previously, he was the best defenseman in the AHL.

At the same time, if there was any indication he was going to be the next Cale Makar, he wouldn’t have been in the minors for so long.  Liljegren might not ever be as dynamic, but there’s still a solid chance he becomes a star and contends from end of the  season trophies.

Timmins was a borderline 1st rounder who ended up going 32nd overall in 2017 (technically that would be a first rounder today), so there is clearly talent.

Add in the fact that he has size (6’2, 200) can skate, and move the puck, and is right handed, and you’ve got an intriguing player.

Also, he’s still fairly  young.  He is 24, Liljegren is 23.  Timmins just has a late birthday that made him the oldest player in his draft, which was only a few picks after the Leafs took Liljegren.

The Leafs interviewed him. They might have taken him at 17 if he was available.  Defenseman like him have only gotten more popular in the last five years, and a player with his skill set and size probably goes even higher today.

His potential remains untapped, mostly because he hasn’t played.

He missed the full year after being drafted.

He played 40 games, 40 games, 6 games, and so far this year, 8.  Those aren’t NHL games, those are just all the hockey games he played. In four + seasons, he’s played the equivalent of one full season and two rounds of playoffs.

Martin St. Louis.

Jose Bautista.

Edwin Encarnation.

Those are the only three players I now of, across the two sports I follow, who have ever become superstars after their mid-twenties.

Do I think Connor Timins is that level of player?

Absolutely not. I just wanted to say that it does happen.  Once every million or so players.

The point is that he does actually have way more talent and potential than most stop-gap players you get for free (basically) when your team is decimated by injury.

Timmins is now  healthy and should get into the lineup sooner or later.  It will be interesting to see what happens. It’s worth noting that in his extremely limited NHL career to date, his stats are amazing.