First Impressions On Ryan OReilly And The Newlook Maple Leafs

At the start of Friday's trading deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs underwent a drastic change, adding six new players to the roster and returning three players to different teams in two weeks.

On February 17, Ryan O'Reilly and Noel Acciari joined the St. Louis Maple Leafs in exchange for first and third picks in 2023, second pick in 2024, and Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudet. Minnesota received a 2025 fourth-round pick to broker the deal, while Toronto received prospect Josh Pillar.

Toronto wasn't finished after trading O'Reilly and defender Jake McCabe, forward Sam Lafferty, a conditional fifth-round pick of 2024 and a conditional fifth-round pick of 2025 from Chicago in exchange for a conditional pick for the first round of 2025. 2026 second-round pick, Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev. Chicago agreed to keep 50% of McCabe's salary this season and the next two seasons.

Kyle Dubas acquired defenseman Erik Gustafsson and a 2023 first-round pick from Washington in exchange for defenseman Rasmus Sandin. The pickaxe sent to Toronto originally belonged to Boston and was acquired by Washington in exchange for Dmitri Orlov. Luke Schenn will return to Toronto as the team sent a third-round pick to Vancouver to set up a bye.

Pierre Engvall was then sent to the New York Islanders for the 2024 third round. It would be foolish to bet against the Oak's machinations, but it seems the Maple Leafs already have a playoff roster.

The Maple Leafs have been one of the most active teams heading into the NHL trade deadline, and their moves are already paying off. (Reuters)

Here's how the new team players were when they first met the team: McCabe and Lafferty met Edmonton on Wednesday.

Ontario's line could be an elite two-way unit

O'Reilly was originally slated to move to the center back row, but Keefe instead opted to move John Tavares to the wing for a reinforced line that would become one of the league's most defensive forwards. The series would last four games together before Keefe decided to experiment with William Nylander and brought Mitch Marner into his comfort zone with Michael Bunting and Austin Matthews.

O'Reilly earned a well-deserved reputation as one of the best defensemen in hockey by winning the Selke Trophy in 2019, but briefly fell to an average defenseman in the league this season. Marner and Tavares are in the top 80 of all qualifiers when it comes to expected goals against 60, so O'Reilly would definitely win against two elite wingers and that line could be one of the best two-way players. league group.

Tavares-O'Reilly-Marner barely scored in their first game together, but Toronto still beat Montreal 5-1. Lost to Chicago, but Ontario Line scored their first goal together and controlled 66% of expected goals. Then came the attack.

We'll summarize O'Reilly's first two goals as Marner is level on points for key assists. The threat of O'Reilly and Tavares breaking the net allowed Marner to use a massive amount of space, which is a death sentence for Buffalo. He also pointed the thought behind Tavares' pass down the wing. He used his size and innate hockey sense to close the wall up front and threaten to snap the rim and slide key points, his biggest asset because he. was an OHL prodigy.

Ontario Line's chemistry continued to grow against Minnesota, controlling 66% of expected field goals and two 5-on-5 shots. , won the tiebreak game 15-2 before William Nylander scored one of the best goals of his career in overtime. Winner Tavares has only recorded six tackles, so I asked Sheldon Keefe what's behind the calls making him a nominal tie below center.

"I'll let them discuss it," Keefe told Yahoo Sports Canada. "It's a combination of keeping the opponent a bit alert, they don't always see the same cross. And we also want John to keep up the pace during the showdown. stay relevant. You never know when it counts. on him, and you'll need him for a one-to-one encounter. And then the power play, more specifically, the power play starts with a draw for us. They don't want him where he has a big power play. Draw and he didn't win a single game in the entire match. We're trying to make sure he stays with us and repeats. O'Reilly was out of this world.

"We've got a lot of options, we want to wake John up a bit to make sure he gets some reps."

After six straight games with four consecutive games, Ontario Lines is scoring five goals out of three while continuing to demonstrate greater defensive integrity and controlling 51 percent of expected goals in all situations. Keefe said he wanted to experiment with his line combinations, and he did just that after Friday's 2-1 win over Minnesota.

Nylander crosses the Ontario border

William Nylander was a standout player for the Maple Leafs, he was always on offense so it's safe to assume he'll get a chance at O'Reilly and Tavares. It paid off in a 5-1 win over Seattle, making it two. threat, circling over the point of attack, looking for clear lines of fire.

O'Reilly couldn't beat the Kraken defense while Kraken defenseman Carson couldn't beat Soucy Tavares, who gave up the puck when Mark Giordano scored his fourth goal of the season.

O'Reilly is nominal center for that goal, but Tavares immediately assists the puck and passes to the recently retired Rasmus Sandin, who passes the puck to Justin Hall. Hall tends to hold the ball too long but makes the right play here, Nylander hits a quick shot, O'Reilly catches the eye with a well-placed save, and Tavares punishes Seattle's defense with rebounds and scores with ease. .

Keefe is called up for Wednesday's 5-2 loss to Edmonton, but O'Reilly's line was one of the few bright spots as they hit five threes and since they didn't hit any, let's throw in the splits. The head is present. After all, we only have one two-game champion, but it seems clear that the combination of Tavare's and O'Reilly's strengths makes her a nightmare against volatile, low-cycle defenders who never stand in the middle, to hold, let alone against elite. A Nylander or Marner guide arm would wreak havoc if given more time to cruise in space.

Achchari - hit on the fourth line

Noel Akkari finally had a poor game for the Maple Leafs on Wednesday, but for the most part was an energetic force for an inactive fourth row. Akari had a terrible one-goal win against Chicago, and that's the kind of dirty offense Toronto will need in their last six playoffs.

Keefe was immediately impressed with Akari and praised him for developing his line with Zach Aston-Reese and Alexander Kerfoot before their Feb. 21 win over Buffalo.

"The Accari group is the best our fourth line has seen all season."

O'Reilly deservedly made headlines with his hat trick against Buffalo, but lost the tag team belt to Akari after the match.

Akari had a big overtime penalty to save Toronto in a crucial third-half game against Minnesota on February 24, allowing Mitch Marner to score in the third-half as a weak spot on the radar. Toronto controlled 88.2 percent of expected goals in 5-a-side Natural Stat trick games when Akari was iced out on Friday, while Minnesota had no shots in a straight 10 minutes.

He also hits like a truck and always hits. If you're in the grittier Toronto area, check out Accari.

In 47 minutes of the 5-5 game, the Aston-Reese-Accari-Kerfoot line-up scored 72% of the expected goals with no goal scored for or against. Akari's goal doesn't count here for childish reasons, just like David Kampf's. on ice. It's a combination Keefe wants to rebuild immediately, as Accari wasn't nearly as effective without Kerfoot on Wednesday night.

Lafferty's speed is an asset to the Maple Leafs.

"What really stands out is its speed," Keefe said of Lafferty after his purchase. “He's on par with the fastest players in the league, so he's very quick to beat you in every way, whether it's anticipating a response or chasing, getting behind defenders to launch an attack trigger."

Lafferty's top speed is immediately noticeable, but that might not be the only thing that stands out about him. He seemed like a minor character for the Maple Leafs, but maybe my initial assumption that Lafferty could ride like the wind and do a little more was wrong.

Lafferty and O'Reilly were two of three Leafs with positive expected field goal percentages while on the ice in the 5-on-5 game against Edmonton. The new centre-back used his pace to create a dangerous chance for Aston Rees but was denied a chance in the night's only quick game.

"I thought the rookies played well, but the guys we rely on regularly weren't good enough," Keefe told Sports Illustrated of David Alter after the game.

We're going to need more than one sample of Lafferty's game. His pace and versatility clearly set Dubas and Keefe apart. Lafferty will likely move to third to allow Accari to stabilize fourth engine again.

McCabe has gotten off to a rough start, and Toronto may need to upgrade all of their defenses

The evening celebrated Jake McCabe's wild start in Toronto on Wednesday. In the third minute, he shot Philipp Broberg into the net with a penalty, Connor McDavid used the subsequent power play. McCabe has been paired with TJ Brody, and we don't expect this pairing to last too long.

Not only did McCabe field strong starting numbers on a terrible Chicago team, but there was a knock-on effect when he didn't play well and Justin Hall went down. head melody. against

With Luke Schenn and Erik Gustafsson moving to Toronto soon, McCabe and the rest of Toronto's nine-man NHL roster could face a complete overhaul.

"It's a good deal for me and we're going to find ways to involve everyone," Keefe said ahead of Wednesday's game via Sportsnet's Luke Fox.

TheScore's Josh Wegman floated the idea of a Rilly-Schenn duo, and it could work, considering Schenn helped shield Vancouver star Quinn Hughes from tough assignments. Mark Giordano has always been brilliant with everyone he works with and he could come back with Timothy Lillygren or you could put McCabe on the opposite side of Giordano and see what happens against Calgary. Hall put on a crazy performance and could have been sent to the press room when Schenn and Gustafsson got their first look.

McCabe will certainly have better nights, but his brutal first impression was symbolic of Toronto's treacherous performance against Edmonton in general.