Follow Colin on Twitter! Follow @ColinDJD Just a quick blog for the sake of discussion, but as I read through and listen to interviews over the past week or so from both the coaches and players of the Toronto Maple Leafs, it would appear that there is perhaps a wide spread agreement that the team has cared for what ailed them most last year; leadership, grit, and role players.
I've already covered in a recent blog how I felt about the improvements which the team has taken part in with respect to their bottom six. One area, however, which can often be difficult to discuss as many differ in opinions, is toward leadership.
In a recent interview with head coach Randy Carlyle, he stated that the players who they need to rely on in terms of leadership may still be somewhat young and or inexperienced. He added that the team’s “leadership… needs to be 10 players deep; something that perhaps was only a few players deep in most recent seasons?
“We look at some of our younger players growing more into a role. The leadership that we’re looking for has to be 10-deep from our hockey club. It can’t be one or two guys. It can’t be always the same guys receiving the same amount of pressure, answering the same questions … we have to share that.…
With that acknowledged, the Leafs have brought in 37 year old veteran Stephane Robidas to try and add to what they felt was perhaps a younger group. With 885 NHL games under his belt, Robidas certainly adds experience to the locker room and perhaps even a calming presence to the Leafs backend which, for a few years now, has really struggled with consistency.
Looking over last year, the Leafs defensive unit averaged 25 years of age. With guys like Morgan Rielly and Jake Gardiner playing a heavy amount of minutes, Toronto was and should have been considered a young and inexperienced defensive team last season – and it showed. With the subtraction of Carl Gunnarsson and Paul Ranger, and the addition of Stephane Robidas and Roman Polak, the Leafs now average 27 years of age on the backend and are considered to perhaps be a little stronger, overall.
Whether or not the above is true is left to be seen, however from one observer to the next, it should stand to reason that an area in which the Leafs struggled with last season would improve after a year of additional development of their younger players, and with the introduction of leadership from a guy like Robidas; that is to say that he remains healthy, of course.
That’s all for tonight – keep your sticks on the ice!