Opinion | Leafs mailbag: The plan on defence and how to stop goalies from knocking the net off

Credit the Maple Leafs for making the regular season interesting.

It did feel that entire season would be some sort of 82-game training camp for the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, with the big question being whether the team would finally win a round, and then maybe go on to do something special.

But this season has caught our interest. Whether it was the slow start, the questions around goaltending, the injuries to goalies and their top defencemen. With each question they responded positively.

The cold October led to a ridiculously hot November. The goaltenders — all three of them — seem like the least of their worries. And apparently missing four NHL defencemen and two more further down the depth chart isn’t an issue, either.

Now it’s Mitch Marner and his points streak. He can set the team record — 19 — on Saturday in Tampa. Then there’s the well kept secrets of Pontus Holmberg and Mac Hollowell. Throw in Nick Robertson — probably going to get a good run of games with Calle Järnkrok (groin) injured — and the team will be carrying three rookies.

Storylines aplenty to keep us amused until, well, April and the much bigger playoff questions arise.

As always, if you have a question, email me at [email protected] and I’ll answer it in the next Mailbag. Now to this one.

Hi Kevin, I hope you’re doing well and enjoying Leafs hockey like I am. That was terrific tonight watching Marner reach 18 straight!

Now that another week has gone by, I’m wondering how many of your other readers might be interested in hearing your take now on the Leafs defence. Do you have a sense of which one of our injured defencemen will likely return first to play? What do you think the pairings will look like once they’re all back in the lineup? Which of the current defence players will be sent down to the Marlies or waived? (At this point I don’t think we can say much about Jake Muzzin since he’s such an unknown.)

If I don’t write again this year, have a wonderful holiday with your family and friends.

Janis J-W

All’s good here Janis. Got on an elevator ride with some members of Leafs management after the win in Detroit and one joked that I was going to write that there’s no room for Morgan Rielly when he comes back.

T.J. Brodie (oblique) is skating again, so that puts him slightly ahead of Rielly. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Muzzin won’t be back in the regular season. So their top six D to me is: Rielly-Brodie, Giordano-Holl, Sandin-Liljegren. Jordie Benn (also hurt), Victor Mete and Conor Timmins would require waivers to go to the minors. Hollowell would not, so I would be Hollowell who will be dispatched. They can use Muzzin’s LTIR to keep the others, if they wanted to.

Hello Kevin,

Often we see articles reviewing past NHL drafts and expressing regrets that we missed that superstar in the later rounds.

Here is my question: Generally speaking, do you think a later round draft pick would have been successful no matter what? Or was it only because of their unique situation that they were able to succeed?

For example, less pressure put on themselves or by others because they are in a later round.

More specifically, if the Leafs had drafted Alex DeBrincat, would he still be the player he is today?

Tim D

Specifically to DeBrincat, absolutely he would be as good as he. He’s a 39th overall pick, a top-end second rounder in what was a very deep draft. That draft has already provided trophy winners in Auston Matthews (Calder, Rocket, Hart) and Adam Fox (Norris). DeBrincat the fourth highest points producer in the draft, so he proved to be a sneak.

But I do believe some later-round picks develop because of the team that drafted them. In Toronto, the belief in Pierre Engvall (seventh round, 2014), Andreas Johnsson (seventh round, 2013) and Adam Brooks (fourth round, 2016) was quite high and the coaching they got in the Leaf system certainly helped them (and others).

Kevin, it became quite clear several years ago that fixed goalposts needed to be replaced by releasable pegs to minimize serious injury. However, large goaltenders today are now sliding across the goal-line so fast and hard that they are knocking the pegs off. Included in this is the clear possibility that it’s also happening more frequently when the goalie feels his team is under duress and needs to give the post a quick push. What do you think about a system that would provide more resistance to inside, side-to-side impact?

Another issue is stoppage in play when the goalie loses his mask. Wouldn’t you think that an improved buckle system would prevent this? The other night the play went on long enough that Hellebuyck could have been injured but then I recall that the phenomenal Glenn Hall started, and completed (I believe), 502 consecutive games (eight seasons!), playing the butterfly style, no less, with no protection whatsoever above his shoulders and minimal protection elsewhere! I still can’t believe it!

Gary A

Use the rule in the book: Delay of game. Do it a couple of times, and guess what, goalies won’t be knocking their nets off the moorings. It worked with puck-over-the-glass. Same thing with the goalie’s mask coming off. Do it once, get a warning. Do it twice, get a delay-of-game penalty. Don’t want any delay of game penalties? Get the mask to fit tighter.

Really enjoying your work covering the Leafs for the Star. I had a thought about waivers last night watching the Leafs-Wings game. I understand that a waiver claim is designed with the best intentions of league parity in mind and at the same time gives players NHL opportunities when there just isn’t a fit with their current team. However, I imagine it can be tremendously disruptive for players as well (thinking of last year when Adam Brooks had like three or four different claims and had to move teams each time). It is likely additionally burdensome and anxiety provoking for players with families and home lives to consider. The current model also seems to work contrary to the best intentions that both team and player commit to one another when they agree on a contract. For example, it must be heartbreaking for a player who signs with a Stanley Cup contender to be waived and claimed when they might prefer to hit the minors and await their opportunity for the next call up to contribute and possibly get their name on the Cup. I wonder if a slight rejig of the waiver claim model might spice up and modernize what is typically a fairly mundane process. In my proposed model, instead of simply “claiming” the player, the claiming team would instead submit an offer sheet style proposal to the player, who could then sign or reject as they would an offer sheet in restricted free agency. The waiver claim “offer” would still operate the same as a waiver claim does today — teams lower in the standings still have waiver priority, the contract terms remain unchanged, no salary can be retained, and the team losing the player would still receive no compensation — but the player would now have the ability to weigh all their options for their own future instead of having it dictated to or forced upon them. This model improves respect towards players and their autonomy over their career choices, better honours the spirit of the contract they signed with their teams, and challenges team head offices to manage their rosters and contracts efficiently (i.e., making it harder to simply dump a contract on waivers to escape an unwanted contract or to free up a roster space). I assert that it would also improve the off-ice narratives and engage fans more in the waiver wire. For example, every few years, if not every summer, complaints arise from fans and journalists alike about how nobody ever uses offer sheets in free agency (because you’d better be sure you’re hitting a home run) — the elimination of compensation in offer sheet style waiver claims would obviously remove that barrier while providing similar structure, process, and intrigue as offer sheet signing does. There would be some challenges to consider, such as keeping the offer management and entire waiver process within a reasonable time frame, but in today’s connected digital world I believe the NHL has the tools to properly clear these hurdles.

Do you think this waiver model would or could ever fly in the NHL?

Thanks for reading,

Jeff G

Jeff, I appreciate all the work and thought you put into this but it will never fly. First of all, the waiver process is not broken. It works perfectly. Good teams sign and develop good players. Good free agents are drawn to good teams. And good teams lose good players on waivers. All the people involved know the risk. Players know where they are on depth charts and team plans and sign anyway. If they get waived and claimed, they change teams. If they don’t want to change teams, they can force a trade or retire. That’s pretty rare. No player is guaranteed a roster spot, all of them understand that. Nicolas Aubé-Kubel was supposed to be a lock for the Leafs. Got outplayed by Denis Malgin and Zach Aston-Reese. That’s life in the NHL.

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