Some ex-Leafs: Fun with numbers on a Monday morning

Hey, most Leaf fans give Brian Burke all kinds of credit for the work he has done in re-shaping (gutting, really…) the Maple Leaf organization on and off the ice over the past three plus years.  And that’s only fair, as he has constructed and assembled a solid front office (plenty of advisors, for sure, with strong backgrounds) and a young, fast and often exciting team.

As I’ve tried to point out here, (and I’m not alone in making this observation) they are still a few pieces away, it would seem, from being a legitimate contender in the Eastern Conference.  But they are surely moving in the right direction, and that is a credit to Burke.

In the same breath, it’s always reasonable to not automatically applaud every time he makes a move, or just assume that he has made only brilliant decisions in his time running the Maple Leafs.  He certainly “won” the Aulie/Phaneuf deal, there is no question about that.  And even if Joffrey Lupul had retired by now, there isn’t a living, breathing Leaf fan who would undo the Beauchemin for Jake Gardiner trade.  That young man (as I— and many others!—have pointed out) has Scott Niedermayer written all over him.  He should be a pleasure to watch in a Leaf jersey for many years to come.

All this glowing stuff said, it’s not exactly accurate that everyone that Burke has shuffled out of town is a bum.  Now, those of you who know this site well will also know that I’m not exactly a “stats” guy.  Others handle that aspect of assessing teams and players much better than I.  But I happened to be leafing through some NHL leader boards on the weekend, and couldn’t help but be drawn to one particular statistical column—the one relating to individual players and their current “plus/minus” numbers.

Now, we all recognize that stats can be deceiving, and this particular stat sometimes is.  But it can be something of a barometer for how an individual is contributing in an overall sense to his team.

Lo and behold, the boy who got away, Tyler Seguin (though slumping a bit in terms of offensive production recently and apparently a late sleeper—but hey, he’s a teenager…) was among the league leaders with a plus 19.  Not far behind him was ex-Leaf rearguard Ian White at plus 17.  (VLM followers will know I was—and still am—a White “fan”.  He was the one guy we lost in the Phaneuf deal that I had really liked as a Leaf.  He gave tons of effort and had skill, too.  I’m happy to see him settling in with Detroit as a key guy after being shuffled around the last few seasons.)

Right alongside White was none other than Kris Versteeg, he of the briefest of Leaf interludes last season.  He was also a plus 15, a pretty nice total this far into the season.  Whether he can keep that up (and whether the Panthers can keep up their surprising play), I have no idea.  But the much-travelled 25 year-old winger also has 30 points in 28 games, so while he perhaps didn’t fit for some reason in Toronto, he’s not exactly doing nothing these days, skating in anonymity in Florida.

I’ll throw one more name into the ‘stat hat’, even though this was a Fletcher move, not a Burke transaction.  Alexander Steen, who showed so much promise in his early days as a Leaf, continues to find his stride as a Blue.  He is now a plus 14 on the season, and is managing to put up a few useful points as well, despite playing in Ken Hitchcock’s well-know defensive “system”.

And just for fun (because I know Leaf enthusiasts are clearly not asking for Kabby back...we are looking at Colborne and Biggs as key guys now or in the future...) I will throw in Tomas Kaberle.  Yes, I've written here acknowledging his generally less-than-stellar play in Boston and Carolina, but in his last three games (two with the 'Canes, one with the Habs) he has 6 assists. At still only 33, is a re-born Kabby a possibility?

I don’t raise this to criticize Burke (or Fletcher, for that matter).  It’s simply a matter of being fair in assessing what management has done with the team.  A lot of us like what the team is doing with its present personnel.  Few Leaf fans would un-do the Kessel deal, for example.  But we shouldn’t just blindly say “what a great deal” when Kessel is hot, and ignore the ramifications of what could have been, alternatively.

Fans would surely rather have Phaneuf than White, but we don’t see White play all the time and by all accounts he has been very good for Detroit.  The Leafs received a high draft choice for Versteeg and that may work out well.  But he has not exactly been a bum with the Panthers, eh?

Again, it’s just looking at things objectively, and not just through the blue and white lens of a Leaf fan, which most of us tend to do.

Burke’s done some tremendous things, but some of the guys he sent packing—or could have had—are doing not too badly, either.