The Toronto Maple Leafs blue-line was bolstered this past summer with the addition of Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
Tanev had an immidiete impact and, despite his age and the length of his contract, appears to be just what the Toronto Maple Leafs needed.
OEL, on the other hand, has been tried all over the lineup and has not found much success.
As the Toronto Maple Leafs embark on the second half of the 2024-25 season, I thought it would be a good time to check in on their defenseman, their deployment, and where they go from here. (Note, all stats current priort to the Leafs vs Washington Capitals game).
Toronto Maple Leafs First-Half Blue-Line Check-In
Deployment
Morgan Rielly leads the Leafs in 5v5 ice-time per game with 17:21 minutes per game. McCabe is next, then OEL, then Tanev is fourth with 15:54. Timmins and Benoit come in last, as expected, each plays 16 minutes per game, with Timmins averaging 20 seconds more per night.
In total, the Leafs have deployed only nine defenseman this year. The six listed above, then Phillippe Myers who has played nine times. Jani Hakkanpa played twice and Timothy Liljegren was played just once, to the eternal shame of Craig Berube.
The pairings have been pretty consistant - McCabe with Tanev, OEL with Rielly and Benoit with Timmins. OEL has moved around the most, and has spent significant time with all three of the Leafs best defenders, but exceedds 50% xGoals only with McCabe.
When you include special teams, Rielly and McCabe still lead the Leafs in ice-time, averaging 21 minutes each. OEL is next, then Tanev.
Results
Jake McCabe is the only defenseman on the team with a positive Corsi rating. This is not good.
That said, the Leafs goaltending is making the blue-line look good: Save Hakanpaa, who barely has played, every Leafs defenseman has been on the ice for more goals for than against. They are getting particularly good results with Connor Timmins on the ice, winning 18-9 in his minutes.
Keep in mind that these results have been achieved while the Leafs recieved some of the best goaltending in the NHL, so it is important to look at the their numbers a little deeper if we want to know if these results will keep being so positive.
Connor Timmins - playing the easiest minutes, keep in mind - leads the Leafs with a 54% expected goals rating. McCabe is at 53%, while Rielly and Tanev both come in at 52%. Oliver Ekman-Larsson is breaking even at 50%.
These numbers are not elite, but they are very good. Tanev and McCabe play especially tough minutes, so their numbers might actually be elite. Either way, they are excellent.
The only problem is Simon Benoit who is just going awful and probably. needs to be replaced at this point. He is posting only a 40% XGoals and other teams are feasting on his minutes.
Production
When it comes to scoring, no team in the NHL is getting a higher percentage of their goals from their forwards. That's because the Leafs blue-line is still pretty bad at moving the puck. McCabe plays a lot of minutes and his bad puck handling skills are what prevent him from being an elite player.
Tanev is a good puck mover, and OEL is good too, while Rielly and Timmins are above average, and Beonit is among the worst there is in the NHL. The problem is that the Leafs don't have any great puck movers to compensate for playing McCabe and Benoit so much.
OEL has 13 5v5 points, which is OK. It's good for 16th in the NHL among defensemen, but only 5 of those are primary assists. Rielly's ten points are pretty much a huge dissapointment, and only one more point than McCabe has.
What is absolutely brutal is that OEL has zero points on the power-play despite playing nearly 2 minutes per night on a power-play that features some of the best players in the world.
Overall, Cale Makar leads NHL defensemen with 45 points. Reilly leads the Leafs with 18 points. That is simply not good enough.
Overall, the Leafs blue-line is in pretty rough shape. They are not getting any younger/better and yet they are barely a middle-of-the-league unit. They lack a true number-one defenseman, and they could use at least two offensive upgrades. (stats naturalstattrick.com).
Simon Benoit is unpayable and should not be in the NHL, while OEL is barely playable and should not play above the third pairing and should be moved into the role Mark Giordano played last year. I would promote Connor Timmins to play with Rielly before making any moves and see how that goes.
Grades:
Jake McCabe A+, Chris Tanev B+, Morgan Rielly B-, OEL D+, Timmins A+, Benoit F.