Calle Jarnkrok Grade: C-
Despite getting into 52 games this regular season, it feels a little unfair to critisize Jarnkrok too harshly considering he missed short stints of games dealing with multiple different injuries this season, it felt like he could not get in a consistent rythem playing and playing with the same group of guys.
However, in the games Jarnkrok did play, he only averaged 0.40 points per game compared to his 0.53 point per game pace last year. Even though Jarnkrok was in and out of the lineup, he felt invisible often, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because he rarely made defensive mistakes. But overall, his season was very mediocre.
Morgan Reilly Grade: B-
I know that some of you are wondering how Morgan Reilly got a B- when he was one of four defensemen to make the NHL all-star game. Honestly, Reilly did not deserve to be in that game, and I am not going to let the biased voters impact my thoughts on Reilly's performance with the Leafs this season.
Given that he was voted as one of the top four defensemen in the NHL you would like to think that he would be performing around that standard, but is not even close to what happened. Reilly did have a good offensive year again having 17 more points than he finished with last year, but finished outside to top 10 in most points by a defenceman and finished with the 18th most points at five-on-five while spending a ton of time on the ice with the leagues leading scorer.
In addition to that, Reilly ranked in the bottom 12 percent of defensemen in defensive WAR and finished 65th among defensemen in five-on-five on-ice goal share finished 123rd among defensemen in five-on-five expected goal share percentage who played 500 minutes or more, while also being on the ice for the most goals against at five-on-five per 60 minutes of any Leaf defensemen outside of John Klingberg.
If Reilly wants to be respected as one of the best defensemen in the NHL, he will have to become much more responsible for the defensive side of the puck.
Jake McCabe Grade: A
McCabe ended up having a career offensive year in his first full season with the Maple Leafs, but that should not be too shocking considering he played for the best five-on-five offense in hockey.
Outside of the box score, McCabe excelled at getting the puck into forwards' hands, ranking in the top 14 percent of defensemen in neutral zone shot assists and in the top 29 percent defensive zone shot assists. McCabe was also very good denying the opposition entry into the at of offensive zone and was also excellent at denying chances off the rush.
All in all, McCabe was one of the few reliable defenders this Leafs team had, but if there was one thing he has to improve going into next season is his defensive zone puck retrievals as he ranked in the bottom five percent of defensemen in retrieval success which was the Maple Leafs biggest issue throughout the whole season.
He was the Leafs best defenseman this year, and considering his dirt-cheap contract, provided some of the best value in the entire NHL.