Dermott gets chance to step up
Travis Dermott stepped into an opportunity on Monday.
It’s something the 24-yearold defenceman and Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe have been waiting for.
Dermott moved up to the second blue-line pair to face the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Arena, after word that defenceman Jake Muzzin is out indefinitely with a broken facial bone. While Dermott has been with the Leafs for 172 games over four seasons, this is his biggest challenge to date.
“It’s a great opportunity for him, and it’s something I know he’s been waiting for. And it’s something we have been wanting to prepare him for,” said Keefe, who moved Dermott up from the third pair for Monday night’s game, alongside Justin Holl.
“When I look back on the Columbus series (in last summer’s qualifying round) we lost Muzzin in that series, and we weren’t happy as an organization how that went. We’ve dealt with that ... (Dermott has) worked hard from day one in camp, and (Monday night) he has a chance to take a great step.”
Last season, the Leafs’ defensive shortcomings and lack of a physical presence in their own end were exposed, especially when Muzzin was out of the lineup. That left them near the bottom of the league in goals against off the cycle and off the forecheck.
The club addressed the problem in the off-season by acquiring free-agent defencemen T.J. Brodie and Zach Bogosian, two veterans with an edge. Now Dermott gets a chance to show he can also handle a higher calibre of opposing forwards physically, while continuing to contribute offensively with his specialty: the stretch pass.
“I just want him to go about it the way he has with other opportunities: to go in with the mindset that he’s going to continue to do little things very well, and not try to do too much,” Keefe said before Monday night’s game. “Just continue to be himself. And when he does that, we like a lot of things he brings to the game.”
Dermott showed a marked improvement in winning defensive-zone battles during the Columbus series in August, and it’s carried over. According to data compiled by Sportlogiq, Dermott has improved that win rate by two per cent (to 42.9, 25th among all NHL defencemen) over the Blue Jackets series.
He also completes 2.87 stretch passes per 20 minutes of ice time, most on the Leafs and 11th overall. His strength has always been moving the puck out of his own zone. Now Keefe is looking for progress against top opposition forwards.
“He’s done that this season in somewhat of a less-sheltered role, and we’ve done that slowly with him,” the coach said. “It’s something that maybe was a bit of a step back, but it was all the time knowing that we wouldn’t be healthy all season long, knowing that his opportunity would be there.”