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An interesting topic of late concerning the Toronto Maple Leafs has been the attention toward Finnish player Leo Komarov who made his debut as a Leaf last year before heading to the KHL.
A player who didn’t really score goals or put up points, Komarov won over Leafs fans with his ability to hit everything that moved on the ice. Easily leading the team in hits, he quickly made himself known around the league as a pest, and during the 2013 NHL playoffs against the Boston Bruins, he provided the Leafs an added level of grit required to compete.
“This is what he does,… said Gandler. “When needed, he will bump a Lunqvist if it needs to be done. He’ll stretch the role.…
With the NHL arguably moving toward a faster paced, skilled game, some maintain that guys like Komarov aren’t really needed in today’s league. This is actually what’s rather nice about a guy like Leo – he can also skate.
With that being said, it appears of late that a lot of the pundits tend to agree upon the role of 4th line players like Colton Orr. Guys like this can only really offer one thing to their team and that’s face punching. Outside of this, a player like Orr can’t keep up with the speed of most NHLers, can’t score, and are not really good at killing penalties, either. Well it’s quite clear that the coaching staff sees this as well, given that Orr is dead last on the roster in terms of total ice time.
Why bother, I ask, even dress a guy like Orr if he’s going to play a whopping five minutes per game and not really help out the team in any other way than to drop the mitts…if their opponent is even willing to accept? Is it not clear by now that a successful NHL team needs to be able to roll with three scoring lines, and one checking line who can also skate?
For comparative measures, let’s take a look at both players from last year, given that they both played about the same number of games. As a part of the Leafs last season, Leo averaged nearly 14 minutes a game, lead the team in hits at 176, managed 9 points and racked up 18 PIM.
In comparison, Colton Orr played an average 6 minutes per game, registered 78 hits, managed 4 points and racked up a total of 155 PIM. One player primarily sat in the box as his knuckles healed, while the other annoyed the opposition while on the ice.
What should also be considered here is that both of these players were essentially paid the same contract, with Orr getting slightly less. That said, Colton is still signed into next year with a $925k cap hit and Komarov is entertaining rejoining the club.
Now this begs the question - Is there enough reason for Dave Nonis and the Toronto Maple Leafs to replace the former with the latter? Surely Nonis could either find a new home for a guy like Orr, or simply allow him to face punch with the Marlies, no?
I suppose the issue here will be what Mr. Komarov and his agent will request in terms of salary figures. What I can say at this moment, however, is that as long as the figure isn’t crazy, the Leafs should do what they can to reinsert this little pest in their lineup.
Thanks for reading!