Bozak remains a go-to guy
Veteran centre shines in the shootout, in the faceoff circle, in the dressing room
The milestones came and went, quietly.
Tyler Bozak inched a little higher in the Leafs’ record book this past week, moving up the top 30 in career points and games played. He’s 24th on the Leafs list in games (575, heading into Saturday) and 26th in points (347). The accomplishments were noted in the Leafs’ media notes, but not celebrated much anywhere else.
That’s fine with Bozak, who like a lot of players shrugs off personal stats in favour of team goals. But he is the only active Leaf among the club’s all-time leaders.
The 31-year-old has been a constant in his nine seasons in Toronto, always fitting in somewhere on the roster and always a positive influence in the dressing room. It’s a remarkable achievement for a player who went undrafted more than a decade ago.
He came to Toronto two seasons after Mats Sundin left — at times having to deal with the shadow of the former No. 1 centre — and he has survived the Leafs’ rebuild while contemporaries like defenceman Dion Phaneuf and captain Phil Kes- sel were shipped elsewhere.
“I guess it says I’ve been around a while,” Bozak said of the milestones.
He has had his share of critics over the years — he wasn’t a prototypical top-line centre, he didn’t have the greatest possession metrics — but he has been a solid fit in Toronto, filling any role asked of him. He’s basically a third-line centre now, one who has figured out a thing or two about surviving in the NHL.
Bozak has always been solid on faceoffs, and he remains coach Mike Babcock’s go-to centre for key draws. And, without much acclaim, he has become the Leafs’ go-to player in the shootout.
Bozak has scored in three of his last six shootout attempts, and now has 18 career goals in the extra session, easily surpassing Sundin’s old team record (11). Bozak’s success this season has turned the Leafs from one of the league’s worst teams in the shootout last season (1-7) to a team that has won six games that way this season.
“He always talks and jokes about how good he was (in the shootout), but he hasn’t lost his touch,” Leafs forward Mitch Marner said. “He’s been great for us that way . . . thank God we (have) him or, who knows, we might be in trouble.”
But it’s the “jokes” part of his character that brings an intangible value to the Leafs. Bozak might be the Leafs’ best chirper and he’s certainly one of the best at keeping the dressing room loose. Rookie Kasperi Kapanen noted this week that Bozak “usually reminds me that I’m still a rookie” in a fun way, taking the edge off the daily pressures.
Bozak’s rookie days are long behind him, of course.
He’s a family man nine seasons later, with a three-year-old son, Kanon, who is quickly learning to shoot pucks like his dad does in the shootout.