The Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Want Luke Schenn
By James Tanner
The Toronto Maple Leafs once burnt a top five pick on a defensive defenseman named Luke Schenn.
Toronto Maple Leafs GM at the time, Brian Burke, set the team back by years during his rein because he continued down a path that the successful teams of the future did a 180 on basically everything he believed.
Add in a complete inability to understand the salary cap, and Brian Burke is easily the worst GM the Leafs have had since the 80s.
And his biggest blunder was wasting a top five pick on a defensive defenseman whose career high is five goals and 22 points. Players like Schenn are, today, available for free, whenever you want one.
In contrast, a better GM might have selected either Erik Karlsson or Roman Josi, both of whom Burke left on the board to take Schenn. (And don’t give me that nonsense about “rushing” Schenn to the NHL. He was never going to be a top pairing NHL player, regardless of development).
Toronto Maple Leafs Don’t Want Schenn Back
Forget about Luke Scheen for a second. Perhaps you are just a fan of a guy your favorite team drafted and aren’t looking at this from a purely analytical perspective. If that is the case, ask yourself the following question:
Why would the Toronto Maple Leafs – a team fighting for first place – want the #6, least used regular defenseman from one of the league’s worst teams?
Why would a top team want the least important defenseman off a bad team?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have used 12 defenseman this season.
They are so deep, that with Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, and Jake Muzzin all injured, they went on a near-franchise record unbeaten streak.
Jake Muzzin probably isn’t coming back, and a healthy Leafs team should dress this top six:
Giordano-Liljegren
Sandin – Rielly
Brodie – Timmins
They would then have Justin Holl, Victor Mete, and Jordie Benn to use before they ever considered Luke Schenn, who is a replacement player better than just 18% (jfresh) of NHL defenseman over the last three years.
Literally anyone you call up from the AHL will be just as good, and likely won’t be 32, so their potential alone would make them a better option.
Therefore, I don’t see the Leafs having interest in acquiring a player who would be around tenth on their depth chart. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Luke Schenn is a player I don’t even know if the Leafs would claim on waivers. If they did want to add him for depth, a seventh rounder would be an overpayment.
A certain segment of the fan base is always going to love players who are perceived as big hitters who play “the right way.” There are players who actually play like this, but Luke Schenn isn’t one of them.
dark. Next. The NHL Is Very Much Out of Touch
When he is on the ice, you aren’t going to have the puck very much, which neutralizes everything he’s good at. There is a reason there aren’t very many guys like this in the league anymore, and that reason is statistical analysis that says they hurt more than they help.