D Conor Timmins
When the Maple Leafs acquired Conor Timmins from the Arizona Coyotes back in late November of 2022 due to an injury-riddled blueline, he immediately paid huge dividends.
Timmins surprised his new club with his offensive contributions, recording 2 goals and 12 assists for 14 points in 25 games with Toronto for the rest of the 2022-23 season. Not only was his offensive performance captivating, he also showed some promise defensively with his solid positioning as well..
However, despite that strong showing, Timmins somehow has never been able to secure a permanent spot in the Leafs starting six, even until today. In fact, he often found himself constantly moved in and out of the lineup on a weekly basis.
On top of that, he hasn’t been able to reproduce the same elite offensive numbers that he put up from his first season with the Leafs ever since.
This season though has been a little more concerning for Timmins and his recent play. Not only has he struggled offensively with only one goal and 7 points in 41 games played to date, his CF% and scoring chances rate in 5-on-5 situations have actually dipped below 50% for the first time ever during his Leafs tenure.
Considering that Timmins is not winning his minutes despite being deployed constantly on the bottom pairing to go up against the opponents’ weakest lines is definitely a worrisome trend going forward.
With the Leafs likely to add to their defense corps at the deadline, along with the eventual return of Jani Hakanpaa from the IR, Timmins’ days as a Maple Leaf could be coming to an end as a result.