As we continue our training camp and preseason battle series, we shift our attention to the defense.
This unit is usually fairly straightforward, but this season, there is a lot up in the air. The Leafs brought in Darren Raddysh to ostensibly serve as their number-one defenseman; Chris Tanev will hopefully return; they traded for Emil Andrae; and now they are reportedly bringing in Nick Blankenburg on a PTO.
Add in a brand-new coaching staff and management group, and this is a wide-open unit where all sorts of pairings and deployments are on the table. While there will be general intrigue surrounding the entire group, here is what I will be watching for in particular:
Who is Darren Raddysh’s partner?
In the mix: Jake McCabe, Morgan Rielly, Oliver Ekman-Larsson
The competition
You could probably ask this question about any of the Leafs’ defensemen, if we’re being honest, but given that the Leafs invested big money in Raddysh and he will be a top-pairing defenseman on this team, this is the question I am most interested in.
Ultimately, it comes down to how the Leafs want to deploy him. If he is paired with Rielly or OEL, it would be more of an offensive pairing and would really just be a matter of determining who he meshes with better.
If he is paired with McCabe, Raddysh would receive a much steadier partner defensively, potentially creating a “top pairing” that can be used in all situations. McCabe is easily the best left-shot defensive option the Leafs have, and he also brings some bite to his game.
The alternative would be reuniting the McCabe–Tanev pairing as a pure shutdown/matchup pair, allowing the Leafs to deploy Raddysh as offensively as possible.
My take
Last season, Raddysh formed a very good top pairing alongside J.J. Moser, who I believe compares most favorably to McCabe among the Leafs’ options. This isn’t necessarily about recreating that exact pairing, but there is a recipe for success there that is worth trying to replicate with McCabe, who is also a two-way defenseman, even if he is generally a step down from Moser across the board.
Simply put, McCabe is the team’s best left-shot defenseman, and Raddysh is probably the team’s best right-shot defenseman. A healthy Tanev is very good, but who knows what the team is getting from him at this point?
Pair McCabe and Raddysh together, see how it clicks and how much they can carry, and build the rest of the defense from there. It is much easier to build down from the top than to build up from the bottom.
The Leafs would likely rotate the options around depending on the situation anyway—moving Rielly or OEL up in offensive situations and playing McCabe with Tanev in defensive situations or while closing out periods, and so on.
The Leafs should want to enable Raddysh offensively. While it is possible that playing alongside Rielly or OEL would achieve that, we have already seen Raddysh succeed beside a steady two-way defenseman who allows him some additional freedom. McCabe would also be helped by a primary puck-handler as his partner.
Who rounds out the top four?
Locks: Darren Raddysh, Jake McCabe, Chris Tanev
In the mix: Essentially every other left-shot option—Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Morgan Rielly, and Emil Andrae
The competition
There is no question that Raddysh, McCabe, and Tanev will all be in the top four.
You could argue that it would be best to scale back Tanev’s minutes—which would be valid—but at the end of the day, he is a top-four defenseman unless his most recent injury has cratered his game.
That leaves one spot for a left-shot defenseman to round out the unit. And no, the Leafs should not move one of their other right-shot options, Stecher or Blankenburg, to the left.
OEL is the elder statesman of the group and is also coming off the best season. He led the Leafs’ defense in scoring and brings some bite to his game, but he is porous defensively. He was on the ice for a career-high 70 five-on-five goals against last season.
Similarly, Rielly can struggle defensively while providing offense in the other direction. He has averaged over 21 minutes per game in 11 consecutive seasons.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is Andrae, who has never played more than 61 games in a season or averaged more than 17:21 per night. Needless to say, it would be a pretty big leap to assume he will simply walk into the top four.
My take
Ultimately, the Leafs are one quality top-four defenseman short. No matter who they start with—or who I suggest—they will likely have to rotate players in and out of this spot depending on the situation, the form of the available options, and the matchup.
To start the season, though, I find it difficult to believe it will be anyone other than Rielly in this spot. He has played big minutes throughout his career. While the Leafs can scale back his workload somewhat now, they aren’t suddenly going to drop him to 15 minutes per night.
Last season was difficult for Rielly, as it was for most of the Leafs, but it was the first time in nine years that he was outscored at five-on-five. In fact, before Craig Berube arrived, Rielly was regularly outshooting, out-chancing, and outscoring his opposition.
Either Tanev or Raddysh would represent arguably the best partner Rielly has played with in Toronto. In the limited minutes Rielly did play with Tanev, the pairing looked good.
If the Leafs want to lower the workload for both players, pairing Rielly and Tanev together on the second pair would be a reasonable option to start.
Who wins the final spot in the top six?
In the mix: Emil Andrae, Troy Stecher, Nick Blankenburg
The competition
If healthy, there is no question that Raddysh, McCabe, Tanev, Rielly, and OEL will all be in the Leafs’ starting defense corps. That leaves a battle for the lone remaining spot between three players with varying pedigrees who have all shown that they can be useful contributors in the NHL.
Stecher has the most tenure of the group, having played over 600 games in the league, and he has already played for the Leafs for nearly a full season. He is a stable right-shot option who can handle some difficult minutes and contribute on the penalty kill while also moving the puck up the ice cleanly.
Blankenburg, who is arriving on a PTO, is somewhat similar to Stecher. I would argue that he isn’t as good defensively but is more skilled and creative with the puck. He has only really established himself in the league over the past two seasons, but he is coming off a promising year in which he scored eight goals in 61 games and recorded a career-high 24 points.
Andrae is the youngest of the group and the only option here who cost the Leafs assets to acquire. Stecher was a waiver claim, while Blankenburg is arriving on a tryout. Andrae was the main centerpiece of the Joseph Woll trade alongside a third-round pick.
Working against Andrae is the fact that he is a left-handed shot, even though he has played on the right. Last season was really the first time in his career that he established himself as a regular in the lineup. He enjoyed some strong stretches before fading down the stretch.
My take
It is difficult to imagine new GM John Chayka trading actual assets to acquire Andrae only to healthy-scratch him. Optically, it would be a poor look, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he is the best option, either. If the Leafs’ five veteran defensemen are all healthy, Andrae rounding out the group would force someone to play on his off side, which isn’t ideal. None of their left-shot options are better on the right than they are on the left.
At the same time, Andrae is the youngest option in the group and arguably possesses the most upside, given his age.
Stecher is likely the “safest” option of the bunch, but he is also a low-maintenance veteran who is easy to scratch at the start of the season and insert into the lineup as needed. That is much more difficult to justify with Andrae, who is still finding his footing in the league and is a player the Leafs likely need to build up.
Depending on how Blankenburg fits in, he would be a perfectly reasonable option to keep in the fold, but he should also have to work his way into the lineup unless Andrae simply underperforms.
This should really be Andrae’s job to lose, handedness be damned. Ideally, I would like to see him alongside OEL on the third pairing. Uniting the two countrymen could be effective: They are both good puck-movers with some offense to their games, and both are highly competitive.
