Grading The Toronto Maple Leafs at Quarter Mark of Season

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 20 games into their 2023-24 regular season. This time of year is known as the quarter mark of the NHL season and is a perfect time to evaluate how the players on a team are doing.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are 11-6-3 after 20 games and are sitting fourth in the Atlantic Division. It’s not the start they were hoping for, so we’ll see what changes general manager Brad Treliving makes to try and right the ship.

Those on the outside will often hear NHL general managers, scouts, and others within an NHL organization use the phrase “Wait until American Thanksgiving.”

The reason is that by the time Americans celebrate their Thanksgiving in November, most teams have played between 20-22 games. Most teams try not to overreact too soon into a season, so most will wait until the quarter mark of the season to decide what changes need to be made.

For Leafs GM Treliving, he needs to fix a few off-season mistakes.

The main one is John Klingberg. Due to an ongoing injury, Klingberg could be spending the rest of the 2023-24 season on LTIR.

Although Conor Timmins has returned to the Leafs defense, more needs to be done to improve the Leafs blue line.

More needs to be done throughout the lineup, but here is a look at the grades of each Leafs player at the quarter mark of the season. All stats are from hockey-reference.com)

Grades for Toronto Maple Leafs Forwards

William Nylander: A+

William Nylander’s 2023-24 season is off to an incredible start. He has 12 goals and 15 assists for 27 points in 20 games. Nylander started the season with a 17-game point streak.

Auston Matthews: A

Auston Matthews started the 2023-24 season with back-to-back hat tricks. He recorded a third hat trick and has registered 14 goals and seven assists for 21 points in 20 games. Unfortunately, Matthews has gone pointless in nine games this season.

John Tavares: A-

John Tavares has been very consistent during his time with the Leafs. This season is no different. Tavares has seven goals and 13 assists for 20 points in 20 games. The Leafs captain is five points away from career point number 1,000.

Mitch Marner: A-

Although Mitch Marner is not having his best start this season, he still has five goals and 15 assists for 20 points in 20 games. Hopefully, his play will improve, and he will get back to his usual 90+ points pace.

Nick Robertson: B+

Nick Robertson has only played in nine games this season but has registered three goals and two assists for five points. It’s the most consistent he has been at the NHL level throughout his first four seasons. Staying healthy is his biggest concern.

Matthew Knies: B

Matthew Knies is having a decent start to his NHL rookie season, with six goals and four assists for ten points in 20 games. His work ethic is noticeable, and he’s earned his time playing in the Leafs top-six.

Max Domi: B

Max Domi has yet to score a goal for the Leafs, but he’s registered 11 assists in 20 games. He has found his role on the Leafs third line, and with the type of player he is, the goals will come.

Calle Jarnkrok: B

Calle Jarnkrok recorded 20 goals and 19 assists for 39 points last season. He’s started this season with five goals and six assists for 11 points in 20 games. Jarnkrok is on pace to have his best NHL season.

Tyler Bertuzzi: C+

Tyler Bertuzzi is playing as advertised. Known for being a bit of a late starter, he only had three points in his first 12 games. Since then, Bertuzzi has registered six points in seven games. He has five goals and four assists for nine points in 20 games.

Noah Gregor: C

Noah Gregor has only registered four points in 20 games, but he’s been a decent fourth-line player for the Leafs. Gregor has good speed but needs to work on shooting the puck more often. He has a good shot as shown in the Leafs 2-1 shootout win on November 28th against the Florida Panthers.

David Kampf: C-

David Kampf is having a slow start, with four points in 20 games. His faceoff winning percentage is also below 50%. Hopefully, things will turn around for him soon.

Ryan Reaves: F

Ryan Reaves has one goal in 16 games for the Leafs. His play has been bad enough that head coach Sheldon Keefe benched him for a few games.

Grades for Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltenders

Joseph Woll: B

Although Joseph Woll’s record is 7-5-0 through 12 games, he has played really well.

In fact, he has mostly stolen at least three victories for the Toronto Maple Leafs, including their last one, Tuesday against the Florida Panthers.

In that game, Woll had an amazing first period in which the Leafs could easily have been blown out. The Leafs record being decent is reflective of his strong play, but few, if any, of the losses are on him.

Evidence of this can be found in his 2.74 GAA and .916 SV%.

Woll is the Leafs goaltender of the future, and this is his first full season at the NHL level. If Samsonov continues to struggle throughout the season, Woll might get more playing time than expected.

Ilya Samsonov: C+

Ilya Samsonov is 4-1-3 through ten games. He has a horrible 3.58 GAA and a .878 SV%. Samsonov has struggled early and often this season.

After the Leafs took him to arbitration he struggled in the pre-season and that has carried over to the regular season where he has been bad.  The only saving grace here is that you can lay a lot of the blame at the Leafs horrible blue-line. 

He will continue to lose playing time to Woll if his poor play continues. His recent play has made it unlikely that the Leafs will try to re-sign him in the summer.