{"id":464010,"date":"2025-03-10T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=464010"},"modified":"2025-03-09T12:29:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T16:29:21","slug":"bobby-mcmann-filling-key-role-for-toronto-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/03\/10\/bobby-mcmann-filling-key-role-for-toronto-maple-leafs\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby McMann Filling Key Role for Toronto Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depth scoring has been an issue for this era of the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a>. They have always relied on Auston Matthews<\/a>, Mitch Marner<\/a>, John Tavares<\/a> and William Nylander<\/a> (and now Matthew Knies<\/a>) for production. In the past, those four players have been the key to the Leafs offence. Moreover, they have relied on the rest of their lines to fill specific roles. This was true in the Kyle Dubas era, and it has been reaffirmed by the Leafs recent deadline, adding a defensive player like Scott Laughton<\/a>. Bobby McMann<\/a> is one of the Leafs only successful depth-scoring options, which could be the key to their playoff success.<\/p>\n

Discussing Bobby McMann Stats and How He Is the Key to the Leafs Success<\/h3>\n

The Leafs have historically had a reputation of being all offence, however, that doesn’t paint the full picture. A very high proportion of all of the Leafs chances this season have come from The Big Four<\/em> and Knies. No one in the bottom six has been particularly notable in this regard, save for one. Bobby McMann. He is sixth on the Leafs in ixG\/60, sixth on the team in points\/60, and third on the roster in iCF\/60, according to Evolving-Hockey<\/a>. This is crucial for the Leafs as they move forward with the season.<\/p>\n

This era of Leafs has been notorious for having their stars’ production decreasing come playoff time. Each of Matthews, Marner, Nylander, and Tavares saw their chances decrease come playoffs, with their iXG\/60 decreasing to varying degrees. Some slightly, some dramatically. Knies was the only player to step up their game come playoffs from the aforementioned players. This just goes to show, for a team like Toronto, how important it is to have scoring from your depth players.<\/p>\n

Setting the Stage for an Unlikely Hero<\/h3>\n

The Leafs last playoff was a very familiar scene in this sense. Matthews and Nylander fighting illness and injury certainly did not help, but another large injury was Bobby McMann being out. He’s a player that, when all are healthy, can provide that valuable scoring outside of the top six, and when dealing with team injuries, he can slide up and down the lineup with ease.<\/p>\n

When the Leafs load up their top two lines, while it makes those two lines potentially lethal, it can be easier to ensure your opponents get the line matching they want. If McMann is able to provide secondary scoring threats, it opens up a whole new dimension for the Leafs come playoffs. Studying more of Bobby McMann’s stats, it is difficult to disagree. His 1.29 goals\/60 at 5v5 ranks 58th in the NHL, right behind players like Nikita Kucherov<\/a> and Brady Tkachuk<\/a> and ahead of players like Jack Hughes<\/a> and Filip Forsberg<\/a>. McMann is an incredibly efficient player in this regard. While he doesn’t make the big dollars like Matthews, Marner, Tavares, or Nylander, it should not be understated how important McMann is for this roster.<\/p>\n

What Does It All Mean for the Leafs and the Playoffs<\/h3>\n

Along with Knies, McMann provides incredible value for this Leafs roster. If head coach Craig Berube<\/a> is able to leverage that, the Leafs could remedy one of their largest issues in the playoffs. It will be interesting to see how the addition of Laughton impacts the Leafs rotation down the stretch drive. One would think it would only be a good thing, to help alleviate the pressure of the Big Five (this time with Knies in the mix)<\/em>. Needless to say, when Berube is looking for someone to tap on the shoulder come the spring, Knies and McMann will be chomping at the bit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing – Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Depth scoring has been an issue for this era of the Toronto Maple Leafs. They have always relied on Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander (and now Matthew Knies) for production. In the past, those four players have been the key to the Leafs offence. Moreover, they have relied on the rest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2399,"featured_media":464452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4547,4548],"tags":[228,7434,499,5868],"class_list":["post-464010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leafs","category-hockey","category-nhl","tag-auston-matthews","tag-bobby-mcmann","tag-john-tavares","tag-toronto-maple-leafs-analysis"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464010"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464010\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":464459,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464010\/revisions\/464459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/464452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}