Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 Bizarre Player Stats So Far In 2023-24

The 2023-24 NHL season certainly feels like a roller coaster ride so far for the Toronto Maple Leafs. On some days, they seem like an unstoppable force, while on other days, it feels that they aren’t even good enough to beat the league’s basement dwellers.

As a result, there have been many games in which it was hard to predict what version of the Toronto Maple Leafs will show up, causing great ire and frustration in the Leafs fanbase.

At the same time, with the unexpected seemingly waiting to happen in almost every game, some of the Leafs players has managed to put up some interesting, yet bizarre stats to date.

Here, we will take a look at three of those player stats that many may finding somewhat surprising.

3 Bizarre Player Stats for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2023-24

First of all, almost one quarter into the 2023-24 NHL season, Max Domi has been held goalless on the scoresheet. He certainly has been great with the helpers with 11 assists in total. However, the last time Domi has scored in a regular season game was way back at the end of March 2023 against the Arizona Coyotes when he was playing for the Dallas Stars.

Domi has been known for his exceptional playmaking skills, but he definitely has a knack for scoring goals too back in his junior days when he averaged over 30 goals a season with the London Knights.

He has also shown that ability at the NHL level with his career-high 28 goals with the Montreal Canadiens in 2018-19. For the Leafs and Domi’s sake, it’s highly likely that he won’t remain goalless the entire season, but he will need to start putting some more pucks in the net before he becomes far too predictable. If that becomes the case, his overall effectiveness could be easily neutralized in the near future.

Secondly, Auston Matthews is on pace to beat his penalty minutes record of eight set back in 2019-20, as he currently has ZERO minutes through 19 games.

That is actually quite an impressive stat given he has developed into one of the better two-way players in the game, with his defensive checking game becoming just as strong as his offensive game.

In addition, he is among the team leaders in hits with 27, and leads the team in takeaways with 22 so far this season. It is quite mind-boggling that he is able to do that without once resulting in an unintentional penalty, which kind of shows the skill and talent level that he has must be off the charts.

Finally, in the case for goalie Ilya Samsonov, he may be struggling for the bulk of the 2023-24 season for the Leafs, but he hasn’t been really costing them that many games.

As a matter of fact, in the ten games in which he has started for the team this season, the Leafs have gone 6-1-3 and locked down 15 points in the standings, despite holding a 3.58 GAA and .878 save percentage.

Of course, Joseph Woll also lent a helping hand by bailing him out on two occasions coming in relief, but still, the point is the Leafs come away with points whenever he plays.

More surprisingly was also the fact that Samsonov has the higher CF%, expected goals rate, and scoring chances rate at 5-on-5 compared to Woll, despite Woll appearing to have more success in net for the Leafs so far. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)

Nevertheless, weird things seem to always happen for the Leafs whenever they play. But most importantly is the fact that if they can still make the playoffs in the end despite all the abnormalities, that’s what really matter most.