Toronto Maple Leafs: Is Rielly's Ideal Partner Anyone But Zaitsev?
The Toronto Maple Leafs have bounced around defensive pairings a lot this year, but the one pair that has had consistency in showing up together may not be the ideal one.
Toronto Maple Leafs defenders Morgan Rielly and Nikita Zaitsev have seen a lot of time together at 5v5 – nearly 64% of Rielly’s total 5v5 time.
Of the defenders who have seen the ice at 5v5 with Rielly – which is all of them – only Zaitsev ranks below 50% corsi-for percentage when together.
Jake Gardiner has always been a good partner for Rielly, but that’s considered black magic so odds are that will never happen. The resident punching bag, Martin Marincin, has found success while paired with Rielly, though his shortcomings are increasingly evident lately.
If you close your eyes and imagine the Leafs defense, it’s easy to pair Zaitsev with Rielly. That, however, may not be truly extracting the best out of both players – and both players are really good already.
At some point the theoretical best pairing may have to be forgotten about entirely – well, at least until the others have been proven ineffective. This is still a development year and the Leafs like to roll lines so it’s not like banishing one of the two – Rielly or Zaitsev – to an imaginary lower unit would have significant impact in a negative way.
Until the Toronto Maple Leafs pick up one – or two – better defenders to add to the mix, they have to deal with what they have in house.
With that comes extracting the best out of everyone, even those who are already considered the best. This is a leaky defense that, really, can only get better. With Polak, Hunwick and Marincin all figuring in regular roles throughout the year, the Leafs need to find suitable babysitters for the three of them.
A more balanced attack on defense might be the Toronto Maple Leafs best option moving forward in 2016-2017.
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