Why the Leafs may not trade Justin Holl
Many Leaf fans, myself included, absolutely cannot stand the fact that Justin Holl plays so much. That includes during the playoffs when Timothy Liljegren, who did nothing to deserve to be sat, was scratched in favour of Holl.
It's been expected the entire off-season that the Leafs would trade Holl who is entering the final year of a 3-year deal, to free up cap space. In particular, if they could acquire a more physical right-shot defenseman. Unfortunately that hasn't come to fruition for those that want him gone and there may be a reason.
Based on underlying numbers, when paired with TJ Brodie, Holl is a very good defenseman (sarcastic woohoo). Among 86 pairings to play 350+ 5v5 minutes together, Holl and Brodie ranked surprisingly high in a number of categories:
- 4th in xGF% (58%)
- 13th in xGA/60
- 3rd in HDCF% (64%)
- 15th in SCF% (55%)
Reading those numbers, you probably think that most of their time paired together was spent with the Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner pairing on the ice - well, you'd be wrong. Their most common line mates based on time on once were David Kampf, Pierre Engvall, Alexander Kerfoot and John Tavares. Clearly, they are being deployed more as a shutdown pairing with the Kampf line and the numbers show that it has been effective.
Maybe the Leafs aren't trading Holl this off-season because they want to see how that pairing does over a longer stretch playing together. It would also allow them to move their other defenders around and possibly have Morgan Rielly play with Mark Giordano or Jake Muzzin. Honestly - who knows at this point? Sheldon Keefe may even try Rielly with Timothy Liljegren on a longer trial if he feels they need a more dynamic, puck-moving pair.
| POLL | ||
SEPTEMBRE 5 | 273 ANSWERS Why the Leafs may not trade Justin Holl Will the Leafs trade Justin Holl? | ||
| Yes | 153 | 56 % |
| No | 120 | 44 % |
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