Maple Leafs hoping Michael Pezzetta can mirror Steven Lorentz’ success

The Toronto Maple Leafs had a relatively quiet July 1st and if it wasn’t as quiet as it was there a strong likelihood that we would be talking about Michael Pezzetta a lot less.

On the surface, Pezzetta is a couple of things. He’s a cheaper alternative to keeping Ryan Reaves on the roster as an enforcer, he’s potentially a warm body for the Marlies, but at his absolute best he’s another Steven Lorentz, which begs the question of whether the Leafs need two Lorentz type players, but that topic can be saved for another day.

Pezzetta, Lorentz, and possibly Reaves also have the potential to fit style wise with the Leafs’ newly acquired Nicolas Roy. Roy spent the better part of his time in Vegas playing with Keegan Kolesar on his wing, and having a hard hitting, glove dropping, but occasionally capable of finishing linemate beside Roy has been part of his path to success, although often with a puck carrying option filling the remaining slot on the line. While Reaves has filled the role (albeit in his younger days) beside Roy before, and Lorentz’ 2024-25 makes him the likely favourite to play alongside Roy, Michael Pezzetta also has a history with Roy, being his first NHL roommate. If you look beyond Pezzetta’s donuts on the scoresheet in 2024-25, he too could be an option as Roy’s Kolesar replacement.

That’s a lot of assumption for usage around Pezzetta, but it seems worth exploring if he is capable of living up to the best case scenario outlined above.

By his outputs it is painfully clear what Pezzetta has been brought in to do and it is very clear what Brad Treliving wants more of in the Leafs lineup. There are a lot of other truths in those numbers above too though. At no point has Pezzetta been a 10 minute a night player. As much as the zero points in 25 games last season is notable, there was a decline in the previous year as well and there is something about taking a 25 game, sub-six minute a night player from a lottery team and slapping them on a division winner and expecting more that is very unrealistic, unless Pezzetta clicks with someone. (It’s worth noting that Lorentz had three points in 38 games averaging under nine minutes a night before joining the Leafs.)

It’s hard to say who Pezzetta clicked with in Montreal, given his infrequent usage, but his most common linemate over the past three seasons was Jake Evans and the duo did not produce encouraging on ice differentials during that time. Not that they were asked to nor does expecting him to influence much in terms of on ice production factor into how the Maple Leafs will evaluate him either. (Scouting likely involved time spent on Pezzetta’s Hockey Fights page.)

Nevertheless, here are his on-ice differentials:

If heavy sheltering wasn’t a given, it is important to note that this six minute a night player was heavily sheltered. The encouraging expected goals and high danger Corsi numbers were outliers over his career and mirror a drop in time in the lineup and ice time per game.

That all should bring us back around to what Pezzetta is and that is a cheaper alternative to Ryan Reaves that most likely will spend the majority of the season in the press box and come into the lineup on nights when Craig Berube wants to send a message. In many ways, having Toronto born players that were Leafs fans growing up in the enforcer role makes a lot of sense because the injection of passion into the lineup is what he will probably do best.

It’s probably worth noting that Pezzetta hasn’t played in the AHL in over three seasons despite his lack of time in the lineup last year. Just earmarking him for the Marlies is premature but certainly a possible outcome.

One of the other values in Pezzetta is having him for the stretch games late in the season. When a playoff spot looks to be locked up and resting some of the more banged up Leafs is a desirable option, Pezzetta not only giving a player rest but acting a deterrent for the opposition/battering ram for banging up their playoff bound players holds some value and mirrors what the Canadiens did with him last season, with both his 2024-25 fights coming in April, and playing regularly that month.

There’s not much chance that Pezzetta is the guy who fits in as the tough guy on Nicolas Roy’s line, but with a buriable contract that should easily clear waivers thanks to the second year attached to the deal, he is some physical depth for the Maple Leafs that they will tap into throughout the long regular season.

Data from Natural Stat Trick and Hockey Reference