On Tuesday night the Leafs saw Victor Mete become the next in the series of Leafs defensemen to leave the game due to an injury and not return. With the Leafs presently without Morgan Rielly, TJ Brodie, Jake Muzzin, Jordie Benn and having additional depth injuries to Carl Dahlstrom and Filip Kral, the Leafs defensive depth chart is somewhat beyond ridiculous at the moment. Thankfully the return of Brodie seems to be imminent, and Mete won’t miss a ton of time, but it’s worth looking at how the Leafs have gotten through the past few games.

Sheldon Keefe says Victor Mete will be unavailable for rest of the week. They don’t think the injury is serious, though. But “he will miss some time.” @BodogCA @RinkWideTOR
— David Alter (@dalter) December 7, 2022

Morgan Rielly’s last game with the Leafs was on November 21st and the Leafs have played seven games since that point. That is the most significant run of games without Toronto’s top defense as Rielly, Brodie, and Muzzin were all out and Jordie Benn appeared in just eight minutes of that first game without Rielly before he too was injured. Here are the 5v5 on-ice numbers for the Leafs defensemen during that stretch (via Natural Stat Trick):
Player
GP
TOI/GP
CA/60
CF%
GA/60
GF%
xGA/60
xGF%
HDCA/60
HDCF%
PDO
Conor Timmins
1
13.45
31.23
68.18
0.00

1.82
65.89
13.38
57.14
1.000
Justin Holl
7
18.95
61.95
44.08
0.90
71.43
2.29
56.64
10.85
54.72
1.038
Rasmus Sandin
7
16.64
59.75
46.30
1.03
81.82
2.51
55.39
11.85
54.90
1.115
Mark Giordano
7
16.69
57.53
46.67
1.03
75.00
2.31
54.47
…

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation