Toronto Maple Leafs: Ranking the NHL’s Top 5 Defensemen

The Toronto Maple Leafs might just have the NHL’s worst blue-line out of teams who consider themselves Stanley Cup Contenders.

There are many things holding the Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line back from being great. 

Their best player, Morgan Rielly, has declined in both of the last several seasons.

Their second-best player, TJ Brodie, had an awful playoffs and appears to be in decline.

Their third best player, Jake McCabe, was also terrible in the playoffs, although I feel pretty comfortable with him on the second pairing, and he could even be a decent top-pairing player.

Their fourth best player, Timothy Liljegren, might actually be their best defesnseman, but the coach doesn’t appear to care for him very much and has benched him in each of the last two playoffs (undeservedly, in my opinion).

Their fifth best player is Mark Giordano and he’s about 100 and also appears to be done.  Their sixth best player is Connor Timmins, a 25 year old question mark who does put up good numbers when he plays, but never seems to play.

Their worst player is being paid nearly $5 million dollars and was a key free-agent signing, meaning he will likely get every opportunity to play too high in the lineup.  

Uh-oh!

The Toronto Maple Leafs Blue-Line Isn’t Good

This group has almost no physical presence.  It is conceivable that Justin Holl, who they made no effort to re-sign, could be the second-best player on this blue-line. 

And, worst of all, the Toronto Maple Leafs do not have any of the NHL’s best defenseman.  Once upon  a time, Morgan Rielly was in this conversation, but that was back when Mike Babcock was coach. Sure, he’s still basically my favorite player and I think he’s awesome, but even I wouldn’t argue he’s a top-five NHL defender in 2023. (cap info capfriendly.com, stats naturalstattrick.com).

So who is?  Let’s count ’em down.