The Leafs have had an interesting off-season, with new GM Brad Treliving taking the helm. Whether you agree with the firing of Kyle Dubas and hiring of Treliving or not, this is what the Leafs front office looks like now. The Toronto Maple Leafs offence is getting some new toys. The Leafs off-season moves under Treliving have seemed to show a shift of focus back to scoring.
Toronto Maple Leafs Offence Being Fortified
Contrary to popular belief, the Leafs under Dubas really focused on defensive ability and left scoring to “The Big 4”. This was shown in his acquisitions over the years, including the king of defence TJ Brodie, former Selke winner Ryan O’Reilly, and other key defensive pieces like Jake Muzzin, Jake McCabe, Ilya Lyubushkin, Nick Foligno, Riley Nash, Zach Aston-Reese, David Kampf, Calle Jarnkrok among many others. These are all players that were good to excellent defensively coming into Toronto. However, it seems depth scoring fell to the wayside under Dubas in his later years. While O’Reilly was able to contribute offensively, and Jake Muzzin was no slouch for a defenceman when healthy, these players as a whole were not the ones you expect to score goals.
His most offensive acquisitions in recent memory include signing Michael Bunting and depth scoring with Jason Spezza, trading for Tyson Barrie, and giving a shot to a shell of Alex Galchenyuk. That’s a lot of scoring pressure to put on The Core 4. Treliving has come in and at the very least seemingly identified this issue.
Treliving’s Off-Season
Treliving has signed three major players so far. Bringing in Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, and John Klingberg shows a shift back to an offence-oriented team. While some could, and should, argue Klingberg and Domi give up too much defensively and that this may be swinging too far the other way, it shows a change in thinking. If the Leafs were to deviate from Kyle Dubas as GM, bringing in a worse version of him should not have been the choice. Treliving is showing early he is bringing in different types of players.
Max Domi
Domi has had some trouble sticking around the past few years. Since he was traded from the Montreal Canadiens he hasn’t seemed like the same player. However, reuniting Mitch Marner and Max Domi could get things going for him again. Throw Auston Matthews in the mix and it should be Domi’s best opportunity to succeed in years.
Data and visuals from Evolving Hockey
As we can see, Domi’s defence has been atrocious over the past three seasons. And he has not been able to make up for it with his offence. Treliving is taking a bet that will turn around by playing with the Leafs’ stars.
Data and visuals from Evolving Hockey
As seen above, Domi has shown his ability to mitigate his defensive issues and bring a great offensive impact. It’s whether he can do this once again that will be key.
Tyler Bertuzzi
By far the best signing by Treliving this off-season, Bertuzzi is able to contribute offensively without giving up too much defensively (when compared to the other signings). The Leafs may finally have found a steady left wing for the duo of John Tavares and William Nylander.
Data and visuals from Evolving Hockey
Even on a down year last season, which was hampered by injury, Bertuzzi put up 30 points in 40 games, and really came to play in the post-season, scoring 5 goals and 5 assists for 10 points through just 7 games for the Boston Bruins. Assuming he can stay healthy, the Bertuzzi signing should be a great one for the Leafs.
John Klingberg
Finally, the most puzzling of the three offence-oriented signings. Klingberg was a weird acquisition. He’s effectively just a right-handed Morgan Rielly lite. His main value comes from the power play, which Morgan Rielly already holds the spot on the top unit. Klingberg will be playing on PP2 barring injuries.
Data and visuals from Evolving Hockey
While he does bring puck movement to the blueline, he really limits what you can do with your defence pairs. The Leafs will need a strong anchor like Brodie (or McCabe, but Brodie is probably better at covering for defensive liabilities), and that could take away Brodie from Rielly, who greatly benefits from the defensive stability Brodie provides.
There is value that is provided by Klingberg, but he needs to be managed and is a tough fit with the Leafs. He does help the Toronto Maple Leafs offence, though. That’s for sure. It’s whether everything else is worth it.
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