After being mired in a surprising slump earlier this month in which they lost six of seven matches, the Toronto Maple Leafs appeared to have finally righted the ship somewhat with three wins in four games during the past week.
The usual suspects in the Toronto Maple Leafs core four of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares have led the offensive charge, as the Leafs outscored the opposition 14-11 in the process.
However, at the same time, the Maple Leafs have secretly been getting some unexpected offensive contributions from the least expected source without many people even realizing it.
That surprising boost in offence is being provided by none other than Leafs defenseman Simon Benoit. That’s right, the six-foot-four, 211-pound, stay-at-home defender has been doing his greatest Morgan Rielly impression as of late.
The Toronto Maple Leafs are getting some offence from an unexpected source
Benoit hasn’t been known to be an offensive defenseman throughout his brief NHL career. In fact, prior to 2024-25 season, he has recorded only 5 goals and 15 assists for 20 points over 195 games played at the NHL level, which comes out to about 0.1 points per game.
This year, things had been going about the same for the 26-year-old defender until his recent outburst to help the Maple Leafs get out of their funk. In the past seven games, despite averaging less than 15 minutes a night, Benoit has recorded one goal and three assists for four points, with one of the points coming while short-handed. In doing so, that has suddenly put him within two points of his career high of 10 points set with the Anaheim Ducks during his 2022-23 campaign. Benoit has also already tied his career high in assists with seven.
Given his sudden offensive flare, perhaps the Leafs have been underusing him as just a pure defensive and penalty kill specialist. After all, Benoit has been given only 57 offensive zone starts, as compared to 128 starts from the defensive end. (All stats from hockey-reference.com and naturalstattrick.com)
On top of that, the 26-year-old defender hasn’t been just all defense and now the shocking offense being put on full display. In fact, Leafs fans will also remember Benoit most now for his elusive “Superman” punch in his confrontation with Michael Kesselring of the Utah Hockey Club just a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, he could potentially impact the game in more ways than one.
So perhaps with a few weeks remaining in the Maple Leafs season, Toronto can try Benoit on the second power play unit, along with giving him a few more offensive zone starts. And who knows, the Leafs may ultimately find another reliable source of offense from their back end beyond just Rielly and Oliver Ekman-Larsson in Benoit heading down the stretch run. With every little impact potentially being a difference maker on the biggest stage during the NHL playoffs, Toronto should take full advantage of it if possible to help the team to success.