The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the most feared teams in the league because of their offense. They come at other teams in waves, opportunity after opportunity. With their lethal offense, no changes need to be made. The defense is another question, or at least it was.
The Maple Leafs have signed defensemen Victor Mete and Jordie Benn to 1-year deals, both with an AAV of $750,000. Both fill a need at the defensive position, namely the left side as the Maple Leafs look to turn things around on the back end.
Mete, 24 years old, played last season with the Ottawa Senators, contributing seven assists in 37 games. He has speed, good defensive awareness, and cuts down the angles for opposing shooters.
Although he does not contribute much offensively, he does create offense by using his speed in the offensive zone to create chances for his teammates.
The Maple Leafs look to rebuild their defense as they add Mete and Benn.
Mete is a sound defenseman that should help the Maple Leafs’ defense and their lack of speed. He is one of the smaller defensemen on the roster at 5-foot-9 and 184 pounds, but he makes up for that with his hockey IQ.
Over his career, Mete has 5 goals and 38 assists for 43 points in 236 games. He also has 299 career blocked shots.
Jordie Benn is the complete opposite of Mete. Benn, 34 years old, is 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds of nastiness. He is the prototypical hard-nosed, physical, defense-first defenseman. He plays an in-your-face style and is able to use his frame to lay out hits and get tough in front of his own net.
For the Minnesota Wild last season, Benn tallied 1 goal and 7 assists for 8 points in 39 games. In his career, he has 25 goals and 110 assists for 135 points in 595 games. He also has 948 blocked shots and 720 hits.
The Toronto defense was lacking a few things last season and they filled those holes with these two additions. Mete can take care of the offense and add the speed they lack on the blueline. Benn was brought in for toughness and defense first, both of which he can supply.
These two new additions should improve a less than stellar defense and could be enough to catapult the Maple Leafs into a deeper run in the playoffs.