Maple Leafs’ Overhaul of Bottom-Six Wasn’t Overkill

But maybe the biggest question mark from what Kypreos said was that he’s worried about the speed of the players coming in for the Maple Leafs, representing the bottom two lines.

“I would have preferred a speedy guy somewhere,” said Kypreos. “A real gazelle. I am worried a little bit about speed.”

But the numbers suggest a slightly different story.

Maple Leafs Haven’t Lost Speed With New Bottom-Six

Based off of last season, the argument can be made that the Maple Leafs have traded a hint of speed for more veteran toughness and special teams coverage on the bottom-six. Still, to say the Maple Leafs are lacking speed overall with four similar players acquired isn’t exactly factual either.

Last season, based off of NHL Edge numbers, the fastest skater was Buffalo Sabres’ Beck Malenstyn who reached a speed of 40.14 kilometres per hour (km/h). With that in mind, here’s a look at the four specific players the Maple Leafs acquired this offseason.

Paul, who played just 51 games last season because of injury, reached speeds of 36.20 km/h. Duhaime hit a speed of 37.50 km/h. Sissons skated at a speed of 36.99 km/h and Blueger was the slowest at 35.77 km/h.

In comparison, Quillan’s top speed, albeit in restricted playing time, was only 36.32 km/h. Given context and playing time, the numbers are pretty self-explanatory. The Maple Leafs didn’t get all that slower on the bottom-six given what they got in intangibles with those four players.

Even Nicholas Robertson, who was in the 72nd percentile of speed, only reached a top speed of 36.48 km/h. Bobby McMann may have been the quickest player the Maple Leafs lost from their previous bottom-six at 39.03 km/h – but still, what these four bring to the lineup is immeasurable in some ways.

New Maple Leafs Bring Intangibles to the Table

As for how these players differ, it was acknowledged by Kypreos that Paul does bring some different skill set tot het able than the other three. That said, the others arguably bring a number of different intangibles to the table as well.

Duhaime plays more of a pest-type of physical game. Of the four, he led the way in hits last season with 159. His game excels when he can get under the skin of opposing players and we’ve all seen how that works for other pests around the game.

Sissons is a defensively specialist. Sure, not to the level of a Phillip Danault. But he’s a player that can come in for defensive face-offs, transition the game out of his own end and play on the penalty kill, taking some of that responsibility off of Auston Matthews.

While Paul is a jack-of-all-trades, Blueger adds some more shutdown play for the Maple Leafs, giving them another option to put out there against some of the tougher opponents. While he might be a platoon at some point in the season, it’s clear that all four players carry their own torch, so to speak.

While it may be an older bottom-six than Leafs Nation is used to in recent seasons, to say that it’s overkill doesn’t take into consideration what each player brings to the Maple Leafs lineup this season.