The Toronto Maple Leafs’ power play struggles have been one of the most documented storylines of the season so far, right up there with the stellar play of Anthony Stolarz and the rest of the free agency additions. They’ve only received three power play goals on the season, putting into question where their 4-4-0 record might stand if they were even a percentage better than where they are now.
The one constant through all of the good and the bad with this power play has been the loaded-up unit of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, John Tavares, and usually Morgan Rielly — Oliver Ekman-Larsson has taken most of the reps on the point to start the season.
Sheldon Keefe was behind the bench for all but the first eight games of this season in the time they’ve been using this loaded-up top unit, but Craig Berube has seemingly picked up the torch with it. Even in the years, Spencer Carbery oversaw the power play, where it finished first and second in the NHL in 2021-22 and 2022-23, respectively, they battled the same issue — drying up and failing to adapt in the playoffs.
Most of the calls to break up that top unit have come from the fanbase, but ex-Leaf defenceman and current TSN analyst Frankie Corrado recently proposed some new-look power play units to help the Leafs break their struggles.
Normally I’m not a fan of the two balanced PP units, I’d prefer to load up one unit. But it might be time for Toronto to try spreading it around considering their lack of success. pic.twitter.com/3TwgeFqXiy
— Frank Corrado (@frankcorrado22) October 25, 2024
It seems silly that there are calls being made to break up a top unit with a 60-goal scorer and two 90-point wingers, but that’s how stale things have gotten. The notable change in Corrado’s top unit would see Marner and Tavares bumped down to the second unit in favour of Max Domi and Matthew Knies. This is definitely something that could work, considering Domi’s success on Matthews’ wing while Marner was injured last season, and Knies deserves a shot at the net-front job, too. He has three goals to start the season and has displayed a good amount of bite to his game that would translate well to a role where you need to make the opposing goaltender’s life difficult.
Nick Robertson and Bobby McMann are two players who could unlock new potential with a player like Mitch Marner on their unit. Robertson can be the shooting threat with McMann in front of the net and Tavares in the bumper position. We’ve seen that Domi can succeed passing to Matthews, so why is it so imperative that Marner be the one dishing to him instead of using that skill to help somebody like Robertson develop into a legitimate secondary scoring threat?
Ekman-Larsson also remains on the top unit in these proposed units, which is the right decision considering his ability to get pucks to the net. It hasn’t shown up on the scoreboard yet because the Maple Leafs haven’t done much converting on those shots to the net, but once they start capitalizing on those rebounds and driving more traffic up there, his presence back there will be recognized much more.
The frustrating part about this conversation is that it’s been well-documented in the past how lethal this team can be on the power play when they’re clicking. Just last season, when Rielly was serving his suspension for his part in the Ridly Greig fiasco, they had an absurd stretch when they went 17-for-28 on the power play. And that was with Timothy Liljegren on the point, with the only piece that doesn’t remain being Tyler Bertuzzi.
They aren’t missing a specific type of player, be that a quarterback, a hash-mark shooter or a net front presence. All of the pieces are in place and it’s not an issue that can be fixed by making a trade. It ultimately comes down to the players themselves and whether or not they can find the answer and figure out how to adapt when opposing teams limit them to the perimeter. But more often than not, when the top unit is left to figure it out themselves, they spin their tires in the mud. Especially in the postseason when the stakes are highest and the ice shrinks the most.
The Maple Leafs appear set to roll back the same power play units against the Boston Bruins, but if it continues to sputter the way that it has (and there are no signs suggesting otherwise), they desperately need to consider changing things up, at bare minimum just to see if it sparks anything. This team is built to succeed with scoring goals, and no matter how good their play is at 5-on-5, they will always be held back in some capacity if they can’t make the best of their chances on the power play.
