With news that the Toronto Maple Leafs have added right-handed bomber Darren Raddysh to the back-end, it feels like the days of “tire-kicking” are over. The past few years saw Brad Treliving makes some good adds at times – maybe most notably Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Anthony Stolarz – but all the rumoured deals and conversations outside that time frame never materialized.
That had been a shortcoming over the previous management group – a lack of foresight, or at least a lack of willingness to get creative. Over those years they tended to sign contracts on July 1, they made trades at the deadline, and that was that.
The best teams see problems and opportunities in advance and get in position to pounce. I think back to Florida acquiring Seth Jones in March, a week before the actual trade deadline, which is almost always the way to operate. Know what you want and get it before anyone else can.
While this is at an entirely different time of year, John Chayka and Mats Sundin have done something proactive. They knew they wanted to sign Darren Raddysh, who’s undeniably a fit for their needs, and they didn’t want to risk going to free agency and having someone else make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Plus, by doing the sign and trade, they were able to offer the extra eighth year as an inducement of sorts, which would further convince Raddysh that the Leafs are the answer.
Aside from this actual trade, these are positive signs for the way the Leafs want to operate.
As for Raddysh himself and the actual deal, well there’s risk and there’s reward. Anytime you’re operating on the free agent market, which is essentially what this deal was, part of what you’d consider the “acquisition cost” of a player is extra dollars. You’re paying them to choose you, and in Toronto’s case, it cost them a fifth-rounder, which is a part of the draft where you have something like a 10-15 per cent chance to get a player who goes on to have a real NHL career (200 games).
The dollars are big, $8.5 million for eight years, but the Leafs finally have ample cap space and the cap is going to shoot up in the next few years. The dollars won’t be a crisis.
The term, well, it’s more concerning. Eight years for a 30-year-old who broke into the league late and already isn’t the fastest skater could end up looking not-so-great. But what Raddysh does have going for him is an extremely high hockey IQ, and the smartest players tend to stay useful by thinking their way around the ice far past their physical primes.
The hype around Raddysh is two-fold, one being his stats from last year (22 goals and 70 points), and the other being his bomb of a shot. Both are unequivocally awesome.
He hit more shots in the 90-100 mph range than any other defenceman in the league by a good distance:
That will do plenty for the Maple Leafs, particularly on the power play. It’s not just a shot that can beat goalies clean, but it’s more about what it creates. If you’re Matthew Knies, you should spend a lot of this summer practicing tipping pucks and tucking rebounds from in tight under the bar, John Tavares too. It creates a type of chaos at the crease that the Leafs’ floaters from the top haven’t in years past.
With that, it becomes something defenders have to honour, and should open up more room for Auston Matthews (and Gavin McKenna?) to operate on the flanks. Whoever is on the sides, there will be more seams and the chance for everyone else to suddenly get better too.
Don’t get hung up on the points. Raddysh’s 70 last year (in 73 games) is obviously a career outlier, and not the expectation. But if he can make life easier for the forwards on the power play and in the offensive zone in general, threaten 50 points, and continue to do the other things well, the Leafs will be in good shape.
Those other things, by the way, are what the Leafs have been looking for. Someone who can make a first pass (he likes to stretch it all the way down the rink, which will be music to William Nylander’s ears), he can break it out on his own, and he can enter the zone with possession. Check out some of those smaller data categories here:
There’s no free agent signing you can make where everyone goes “Yep that’s perfect, no concerns there.” Raddysh was a late-bloomer, there’s no doubt – will he have staying power? He’s not super physical or fast either. And of course, these are not exactly “top-pair defenceman” dollars, but he’ll be likely asked to play that role at times, not unlike Morgan Rielly in the past.
But this Leafs team had holes, and adding a dead-solid right-handed shot who can move the puck makes their D-pairs look better immediately. Their forwards should get to spend more time in the offensive zone, and this feels like move number two of about a half-dozen to come.
Raddysh has a big shot, so the Leafs took one of their own.