Leafs' new additions have had major goal-scoring struggles this year
When the Toronto Maple Leafs revamped their forward group this past offseason, new general manager Brad Treliving earned plenty of praise from the media and the fan base for his use of the team’s salary cap room.
Bringing in offensively minded defenceman John Klingberg, and three veteran forwards Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Ryan Reaves early in the summer, the new-look Leafs were expected to find a few sources of secondary scoring outside of their teams’ stars. Eventually inking Noah Gregor following training camp, Toronto was set to have a new identity under Treliving’s first year with the team.
While it was clear that Reaves was brought in more for his physical game and locker room presence than his offensive talents, the rest of the Leafs’ newcomers had high expectations of fitting into the team’s forward group rather seamlessly.
Just under three weeks into the 2023-24 season, that hasn’t really been the case. Toronto sits second in the Atlantic Division with a 5-2-1 record, while their 3.5 goals per game mark sits 10th in the league. Both are respectable enough early in the campaign, but it’s mostly been a scoring effort driven by familiar faces rather than newcomers.
Looking at the team’s top five scoring leaders eight games into the year, it’s pretty much the group you’d expect: William Nylander (12 points), John Tavares (11 points), Auston Matthews (10 points), Morgan Rielly (seven points) and Mitch Marner (seven points) all leading the way.
In some cases, this should be expected: that top five is made up of the team’s leader in ice time (Rielly) and their top four forwards in terms of ice time as well.
But the contrast is pretty stark, with Domi, Reaves, Gregor, Bertuzzi, and Klingberg combining for just three goals this season to date, despite all five of them suiting up for all eight of the team’s games so far. Klingberg and Domi have picked up five and four assists, respectively, but neither have hit the goal column yet.
Bertuzzi has scored twice but registered just a lone assist. Gregor has scored once, but registered no assists, while Reaves has yet to register a goal or an assist this year.
The incoming five players mentioned above have gone a combined 3-for-60 when it comes to converting shots on net this season, just a 5.4% clip that’s well below the 9.4% league average to date this year.
It’s still early days and it’s probably far too early to panic about whether the team’s new additions will be able to become valuable offensive contributors on the team. But if they were hoping to come out of the gates flying with Toronto, it seems like that opportunity has passed them by.
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