The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a significant improvement in 1 critical area
The Leafs improved play while shorthanded is more crucial to their future success than reviving their struggling power-play.
The Toronto Maple Leafs power play has been a team strength for most of the "Core 4" era. Star players Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares have ensured success with the man advantage.
Since drafting Matthews first overall in 2016, the Toronto Maple Leafs have had a top-ten-ranked power play seven times. They had the top-ranked power-play unit during the 2021-2022 regular season and had the second-best man-advantage percentage league-wide three times.
Over the same eight-year period, the team's shorthanded ranking has hit the top-ten only twice. The past three seasons have seen a regression in ranking from 8th to 12th to 23rd during the 2023-2024 season.
The Maple Leafs power play also deteriorated at the end of 2023-2024 and was an abysmal 1 for 21 during the 2024 postseason. Playing a man-up has continued to plague Toronto in the early stages of 2024-2025, but Leafs brass should be encouraged by an improved penalty-killing unit.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have made a significant improvement in one critical area
New assistant coach Marc Savard and the Leafs power play struggles have been scrutinized and well-documented. The team's current power play percentage is 13.0, ranking 26th in the league.
While that slow start is concerning, it is unlikely to continue. The Leafs still employ mostly the same personnel that consistently ranks near the top of the league. As the regular season proceeds, Toronto should find itself within the top five or ten of the rankings.
The team's season-long power play goal will be to find the right tactics to be successful in the playoffs while having the man advantage.
The Maple Leafs penalty-killing, on the other hand, has greatly improved. Their current PK percentage is 86.7, the sixth-best in the league. That percentage is over four percentage points better than the 2021-2022 season when Toronto had the league's eighth-best unit.
Among the highlights, the Leafs have killed off two lengthy 5-on-3 disadvantages. The most recent was a full two minutes against the potent Tampa Bay Lightning.
Goaltender Anthony Stolarz pulled a puck off the goal line to rob Jake Guentzel and maintain the Leafs two-goal lead. Not long after that save and momentum-shifting penalty kill, Max Pacioretty scored to give the Maple Leafs a three-goal cushion and they cruised to victory.
Stellar goaltending is most important to playing well shorthanded, but two other additions to Toronto's lineup have helped the team's penalty kill. Chris Tanev plays almost four minutes a game shorthanded and his flailing body negates opposition scoring opportunities. He leads the team with 25 blocked shots.
Steven Lorentz plays almost three minutes a game shorthanded, an important contribution from a fourth-line player. Players like Matthews and Matthew Knies are seeing more time during shorthanded situations.
Looking further down the road, a team can survive a struggling power play in the postseason if their goaltending and penalty-killing nullify the opposition while playing shorthanded.
feed
The Toronto Maple Leafs power play should eventually thrive. Even if it doesn't, their other special teams units are showing they can help them find success.