Making sense of the Leafs defensive pairings

Making sense of the Leafs defensive pairings

Coming out of the last playoff loss to Tampa, and honestly the years before it as well, some of the criticism around Sheldon Keefe was that he wasn’t quick enough to adapt and was too insistent on sticking with his lines and his defensive pairings whether they were working at the moment or not. That’s where the objections to the rest line/pairing blender seem a bit strange, especially when Toronto is trying to find a fit for a number of new faces in the lineup. Complaining is kinda what we do and when it comes to the Leafs forward group it seems like everything is in a holding pattern until Ryan O’Reilly returns and the Leafs have an opportunity to make some sense of things. That said, the Leafs could truly benefit from some consistent defensive pairings, and it’s time to start building those so the partners understand what the other defenseman on the ice is going to do coverage wise and players like McCabe, who are …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Turning over Leafs: The March (post deadline) Leafs Player Power Rankings

I’m back for the second last trip through the roster of the season. Next up will be the playoff preview player power rankings. Can you feel the excitement? No. I get it. You’re sitting around reading a blog. Let’s keep things in perspective.
Anyways, here are last month’s rankings for a bit of perspective and with that out of the way, let’s dive into some power rankings that feature some new Leafs but a very familiar top three.
1. William Nylander (steady at #1)
Welcome back to the number one spot, Bill from ‘berta. It really says a lot that not only has Nylander been the best Leaf for much of this season, he’s consistently been one of the best. He’s also done it while doing a lot of the heavylifting, either centering lines, playing on lines centered by Pontus Holmberg or Sam Lafferty, and generally doing a bit of everything. Over the past month Nylander again has been the Leafs top scorer, but if we are going to find some criticism of him it’s that he’s so much more dominant at home than on the road. I wonder if we’ll see Nylander playing with Matthews at home in the playoffs and see Marner replace him on the road.
2. Mitch Marner (steady at #2)
This really …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Sem Robberse dazzles, Orelvis Martinez has a good day at the plate, and more as the Blue Jays beat the Boston Red Sox 2-0

Last season, the Blue Jays had a 16-3 record against the trash Boston Red Sox. On Friday afternoon, their dominance continued.

Coming into the game, the Red Sox had a perfect 9-0 record, but that was promptly ended with a 2-0 defeat to the beloved Blue Jays.
Blue Jays Nation’s player of the game: Sem Robberse
In only his second appearance of the spring, the 21-year-old Dutchman showed us why he’s one of Toronto’s best pitching prospects.
He struck out Christian Koss, Triston Casas, and Adam Duvall in his first inning of work (with a single to Christian Arroyo). In his second inning of work, he generated two ground balls, walked an MLB batter in Bobby Dalbec, and got Stephen Scott to flyout.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Robberse has the floor of a back-end of the rotation starter. He’s also added muscle this off-season, which has seen his average velocity jump to 93-95 mph. On top of that, he’s a pitcher with great command and nasty stuff. So yeah, keep an eye out for Robberse next season.

Here’s Sem “The Pitching Dutchman” Robberse (@SemRobberse)’s strikeout and whiff edit from this afternoon.
A Double-A start is probable, but it’s not out of the question that we see the 21-year-old pitch in Triple-A in 2023.#BlueJays pic.twitter.com/48URgp5nXC
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) March 10, 2023

Things worth mentioning:
Orelvis Martinez had a good day at the plate. In his first plate appearance, he drew a walk on a 3-2 count (embedded at the end of the article). In his seco …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Timelines and expectations for Matthew Knies as a Maple Leaf

Timelines and expectations for Matthew Knies as a Maple Leaf

Matthew Knies could very well be in his last couple of months of college hockey. The Leafs very much wanted to add him last spring after his breakout freshman season and Olympic appearance, but with the Minnesota Golden Gophers coming up short on the national title there was some unfinished business Knies wanted to attend to and with the Gophers having some additional high profile returning players and even more significant freshman additions in Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud, the desire to return to the NCAA was strong.
Since that time, Knies has continued to be a top prospect for the Leafs. Some flaws with Knies might have been acknowledged at the Leafs summer prospect camp where he failed to stand out, and in the summer World Juniors, Knies couldn’t buy a goal even if he was useful in creating space for his linemates Logan Cooley and Matthew Coronato. There might have been concerns, but those are largely gone now that Knies is sitting on a new career best 17 goals (in 5 fewer games than last season) which are good enough for the 3rd best in the country. He also finds himself in the top 20 in the country in scoring and 30t …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

How much grit does the backline have?

How much grit does the backline have?

Last week we examined how much grit the Maple Leafs had up front. A day later, Dryden Hunt was placed on waivers (went unclaimed and has since played games with the Marlies), while Pontus Holmberg and Joey Anderson were called up. Both of them made positive contributions to the forward group last week. With just over a month to go before the trade deadline, the musical chairs in the bottom 6 will continue.
As the Leafs d-core nears full health (Brodie returned from injury last game, and Victor Mete is back skating), let’s take a look at the grit (or perhaps lack thereof) the Leafs currently have compared with what they had in the playoffs last season. There are many familiar faces this season, and some have continued to develop at impressive rates.
Morgan Rielly, Mark Giordano, and TJ Brodie each played 7 games last spring against Tampa Bay, while Justin Holl played 5. Combined, the four defencemen averaged 2 hits per game. Barring any injuries or trades (Holl is the only one that could possibly move), the four veterans of the group are each firmly part of Sheldon Keefe’s top 6 and they’ll be in the lineup for game 1 of the playoffs. We shou …

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Author: Bennett Jull / The Leafs Nation

Blue Jays Nation’s 2023 Preseason Top 50: #3 Brandon Barriera

Our last 2022 draftee also ranks as Blue Jays Nation’s third best prospect.

Brandon Barriera may not have any statistics yet, but his stuff has been described as “the nastiest” in the 2022 class.
Before we jump into the profile, let’s look at the criteria!
Brennan’s criteria:
Instead of writing this out every time I did for the mid-season Top 60, I’ll copy and paste my criteria for how I rank and scout these players.
There are many factors that determine a top prospect. The eye test is the biggest driver in determining a top prospect, but proximity to the majors, ceiling, and floor is also important. Moreover, statistics are another key ingredient, as everything works together to give you numbers.
As for the grades, it’s important to remember that they are relative to the league in which they play. A kid from Dunedin is not going to have a 50-grade hit tool if he were placed in the big leagues. But relative to the league in which he plays, a .300 hitter is eligible to have that grade.
For these prospects, I’ll be reviewing their background, numbers in the minors, pitch mix (if they’re a pitcher), and giving a scouting report (if feasible, rookie league guys are difficult).
Let’s jump in!
Brandon Barriera‘s career so far:
The 18-year-old left-handed pitcher was selected with the 23rd overall pick in the 2022 MLB draft.
Unlike the majority of the players on this list, Barriera hasn’t made his professional debut, …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Joseph Woll has played his way into being next goaltender called up to Maple Leafs

Joseph Woll has played his way into being next goaltender called up to Maple Leafs

Joseph Woll last played in the NHL 419 days ago and it’s time for him to return there, again, with the Maple Leafs.
It was a strange Friday night for the team, to say the least. Matt Murray was supposed to start against Ottawa. That was until he suffered an injury in warmups, according to Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe.
“He’s been dealing with something that flared up on him tonight,” Keefe told reporters on Friday night, “so he wasn’t available to play.”
That meant Ilya Samsonov — who’s played in Toronto’s previous four games — was getting the start.
Murray remained on the bench for the entire game, though Keefe did say that he wouldn’t have been able to play had Samsonov got injured.
“We would’ve been EBUG in that situation I believe.” The head coach added.
It’s not known whether Murray will be available to play, or even be the backup for Toronto on Sunday against Washington . And when Keefe was asked if the team would have another goaltender for Saturday’s practice, he really didn’t have an answer.
“We’ll see,” Keefe said to reporters Friday night. “The Marlies are away and we’ll get a better idea of exactly where everything’s at — it obviously happened pretty quickly and right before game time. (We) haven’t had a lot of time to get organized on it, bu …

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Author: Nick Barden / The Leafs Nation

Winter League wrap-up, final edition: Rainer Núñez’s team falls in the finals, Bowden Francis dominated in the semi-finals, and more!

This will be the last edition of the Winter League wrap-up… This means that we’re getting closer to the start of the 2023 season!

While most of the leagues haven’t finished, there are no more Blue Jay prospects playing, so it’s time to wrap up the wrap-ups.
In this article, we’ll look at prospects who played in their team’s playoff rounds. In a two-part series, I looked at how all the Jays prospects did in LIDOM (you can read that here), as well as in the other three winter leagues (which you can read here).
Let’s start by focusing on the Dominican Winter League.
Licey del Tigres win the Dominican Winter League:
On Wednesday night, Licey won their 23rd title in LIDOM, beating Rainer Núñez’s Estrellas 2-1 in the final game to win the series 4-1.

Nate Pearson is emerging as that high leverage, swing and miss the 2023 Jays are lacking.
11 IP0 ER5 H15 K (36.59 K%)4 BB (9.76 BB%)34 swinging strikes (43.59 whiff%)36.75 CSW%
Here is every whiff & strikeout this season.#BlueJays #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/YCmlr3Ypo7
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) November 13, 2022

As you may know, Nate Pearson was a big part of Licey’s early success, pitching in relief and doing so quite well. Finishing in mid-November, the 26-year-old posted a 36.6 K%, a 9.8 BB%, and a 43.6 whiff %. Moreover, he didn’t allow an earned run in the 12 innings he pitched in. I wrote more about his adventure in the Dominican Republic here, but he’s emerged as a potential bullpen piece for the Blue Jays next season.
Sadly for Núñez, he didn’t quite perform as he did during the regular season, which saw him win LIDOM’s Rookie of The Year award. In the four-team round-robin, he slashed .167/.219/.167 with 11 strikeouts in 32 plate appearances for a 34.4 K%.

¡DOBLETE de Rainer Núñez que remolca la primera de las @EOBASEBALLCLUB! 🐘🌟#LIDOM #CopaBanreservas ⚾️🏆 pic.twitter.com/Mnx8FYvZwT
— LIDOM (@LIDOMRD) December 8, 2022

It’s possible that the 22-year-old first baseman was dealing with exhaustion, as he had been playing since April 2022. Either way, Núñez certainly made an impression and ranked as Blue Jays Nation’s 16th-best prospect heading into 2023.
Criollos de Caguas bow out in the semi-final:
Although Blue Jays p …

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Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Ryan O’Reilly gets the top spot on the TLN Leafs Trade Target List

Ryan O’Reilly gets the top spot on the TLN Leafs Trade Target List

Last week we ran a number of posts with the TLN contributors weighing in on what they thought of the Leafs season so far. It was probably a good thing to ask before the Leafs dropped a couple to Detroit and Boston, but that’s not really the point. The point is that while we would pool our thoughts on the Leafs season, I also asked everyone to put forth a list of five names that were their top trade targets for the Leafs. The end result is this, the TLN Leafs Trade Target list. There was no priority put towards the first name on everyone’s list, this is just a count of the top 15 players list and a look at how much sense they make for the Leafs.
T-8: Sean Monahan
Sean Monahan is a pure rental option that checks a few boxes for the Leafs. He’s a capable top six player that is having a better than expected season on a poor team, and has shown that he can achieve even more when he’s given better players to work with. The fact that Monahan is a center means that the Leafs can either roll three lines with some offensive capa …

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Author: Jon Steitzer / The Leafs Nation

Raptors’ win vs. Hornets proved Precious Achiuwa is the biggest X-factor

Raptors’ win vs. Hornets proved Precious Achiuwa is the biggest X-factor

The Toronto Raptors are getting prepared to make one last earnest charge at a postseason spot with this roster, as key names like Precious Achiuwa haven’t always been available due to injuries. With one of the easiest remaining schedules in the second half, they had a golden opportunity to start hot against the Charlotte Hornets. […]
Raptors’ win vs. Hornets proved Precious Achiuwa is the biggest X-factor – Raptors Rapture – Raptors Rapture – A Toronto Raptors Fan Site – News, Blogs, Opinion and More

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Author: Mike Luciano / Raptors HQ