In wake of Chris Tanev injury, Maple Leafs can't wait to add defenceman

Heading into this season the Maple Leafs' defence was a couple things: it was better than the season prior, and it was also not good enough. 

It was better, because Chris Tanev's return alone was an upgrade over the steady reps substitutes like Philippe Myers were getting, while the addition of Darren Raddysh gave the Leafs another good right shot who could man the power play, to boot.

The defence being “not good enough” is more a reference to Toronto's league-wide ranking if you were to poll GMs around the NHL about how this blue line compares to others. I doubt many would think this group is "bad", but I think it’s fair to say that not many would rank them in the top half of the league.

I figured, if healthy, Toronto's blue line -- which seemed almost entirely comprised of second-pair level of players -- could be good enough to help the Leafs return to the playoffs, but I think we all knew they wouldn’t get through the year healthy. No team does. And when injuries hit, who the heck knows where they planned to turn, as they seemed to have about four decent No. 7 defencemen. Now, just seven games into the season, with some good and exciting things happening with the team, the back-end has quickly highlighted itself as a capital-p Problem.

Tanev got hurt on what looked like a nothing play, spurring fears that it could be something related to the neck/whiplash-type injury he sustained early the season before (though details of the actual injury haven’t been shared). Oliver Ekman-Larsson has missed skates for “maintenance,” which implied some nagging injury, and he hasn’t looked particularly great when he has been out there.

Morgan Rielly’s defending struggles haven’t gone away, Raddysh has had to adjust to a new team and system, and Jake McCabe has been shovelled the Leafs' heaviest lift with D-zone starts and top-line matchups. Troy Stecher’s given them all they could ask for and more. He's seventh on the team in ice time per game, which is one of those “damning with faint praise” statements. 

I like Stecher fine, but he just shouldn’t be this important to any team’s success on a daily basis.

Now, by having to swap out Tanev for Nick Blankenburg, the Leafs don’t even have enough bodies to fill clearly defined roles within their six. Raddysh will now have to kill penalties and eat tougher minutes with McCabe, while Stecher takes second pair reps with Rielly. Cue the drop on Real Kyper and Bourne of Brad May saying “Well it’s not good”.

In Utah the Leafs dressed seven defencemen, as Marshall Rifai got in, a toolsy low-end NHL blue liner who’s been put in a tough spot, knowing his shifts will be few and far between. He wants to impress, but at the same time he’s the type of player who’s doing well when you don’t notice him, which creates a conflict. He looks nervous, and justifiably so.

Unfortunately, the Leafs don’t have time to let things “play out.” Ben Danford is supposed to help defensively, but he won’t step in as a 20-year-old and move the needle for them in any meaningful way yet. We could go through all the options here (Dakota Mermis?), but take my word for it that, internally, they just don’t have a solution. 

They’re saying the right things about “next man up,” and the forward group is good enough to score and win some games, but the Atlantic Division – heck, the league – is just too good for the Leafs to slowly learn a lesson they’re going to be taught if they don’t make a change: this D-corps isn’t going to be good or deep enough to make the playoffs without an upgrade or two.

As of Wednesday only one team in the Atlantic is below a .500 points percentage, and all of the Bruins, Senators, Lightning, Panthers, Sabres, and Canadiens are realistically playoff-level teams. Add in the Leafs and that’s seven teams in one division who think they’re good enough to be in. The Leafs have to be realistic about how high the bar is that they’re trying to clear.

And so, we’re at the “now what” part of the conversation, where we’ve recognized the Leafs don’t have it internally, so they have to look outside the organization, and make a trade.

The Pittsburgh Penguins recently swung two trades for depth defencemen, but the Leafs need a higher level than the type of easy acquisitions that tend to happen in mid-October. And, given how few quality draft picks and prospects they have to offer, Toronto has to be sure they’re getting what they’re after when they do pull the trigger. As much as it would be nice to wait until the trade deadline to see if more high-quality defencemen become available, it could be too late by then. Maybe you can’t make the playoffs in the first quarter of the season, but you can sure fall out of the race. Playing three elite Western Conference teams on the road helped highlight that to hang with the best, Toronto needs this upgrade sooner than later.

Names being floated out there include Zach Whitecloud, who’s a hard-nosed middle-pair defenceman who would improve the team’s physicality. While stylistically different, Rasmus Ristolainen probably slots in somewhere similar to Whitecloud. While both of them would help the Leafs compared to what they’ve got now, neither guy is some elite puck-mover who would eat big minutes and significantly move the needle. 

And so, this is what lays at the feet of John Chayka, and in turn, head coach Jim Hiller. 

Chayka is calling GMs and finding out what’s available for them to even consider, and until then, Hiller has to help out his defencemen through overall team structure. The Leafs, with this much firepower -- and, oh buddy, do they once again have firepower -- are going to help by outscoring their issues on some nights. There are some under-talented teams out there they should make short work of. And even when they fall behind, they can always get back into a game. 

But to build something sustainably good, something that can hold up for long stretches of play against good opponents, Toronto's next step has to be an addition on the back-end. I know it, you know it, and they know it, it’s just a matter of who’s out there, and how much it will cost.

As long as Tanev is out, it will feel like a race against the clock to find a solution, with each win buying them time before it gets truly desperate. The forwards will be playing the opposition every night, but until the Leafs get stronger on the back end, they’ll have to overcome a different kind of challenge, too.