Kirill Marchenko makes the Maple Leafs better up front, but one sharp take says Toronto still fixed the wrong end of the ice.
Jordan Decker put it bluntly Tuesday, hours before the Leafs host Montreal. "Marchenko is better than Knies," he wrote.
The kicker came next. "But it was never going to be their top 6 that sank them anyway. It was and still is their D core."
The first half of that holds up. The right winger put up 27 goals and 67 points in 76 games last season, and finished a +7.
Matthew Knies matched him almost point for point with 66. The gap sat in the rating column, where Knies went minus-30.
The year before, Marchenko went for 31 goals, 74 points and a +29. That's a top-six résumé built across two straight seasons.
He's also a 6-foot-3 right shot, which hands Jim Hiller a different look on the wing than the left-shot forward who left.
Jim Hiller's blue line gets its first test against Montreal tonight
Decker's real target was the defence. He said the Leafs looked slow last year, and added that it wasn't because the roster was full of slow skaters.
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That points at breakouts, gap control and the first pass. Teams that look slow usually start looking slow in their own zone.
Marchenko is the better player today. Knies is the better bet for the years after this one, and that trade-off only works if the defence gets fixed too.
Upgrading the wings while the back end stays put is like buying new tires for a car with soft brakes. You just reach the same problem faster.
The Canadiens make it a real test tonight. They went 4-1-0 over their recent stretch, and Noah Dobson anchors their back end on a $9,500,000 cap hit.
Toronto enters on a two-game win streak after beating Ottawa 4-2 last Wednesday. Rookie Gavin McKenna's debut only adds more eyes on how the Leafs defend.
Marchenko brings 208 points in 292 NHL games, and zero playoff games so far. If the D core really is the problem, all those points won't solve much by April.
Is the Maple Leafs defence still the real problem even with Kirill Marchenko up front?
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