Which Maple Leafs are playing more (and less) under Craig Berube

Craig Berube is now 10 games into his coaching tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs, which means we’ve got a decent sample to analyze some of his deployment patterns — namely, who’s playing more and less compared to a season ago.

Away we go!

Forwards

Matthew Knies is the biggest riser in the bunch, grabbing 3.5 extra minutes per game under Berube. That’s no surprise. Knies was primed for a second-year leap in opportunity.

It likely would have happened no matter who was the head coach.

Knies was deployed with care last season when he was still a rookie. Then-Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe was mindful that the then-21-year-old was essentially doubling his workload (in terms of games played) from college. Keefe purposefully held Knies’ minutes down from time to time, occasionally swapping in wingers to play in his place on the first line.

Knies’ personal high in minutes last season: 18:41.

He’s hit that mark or exceeded it four times already in the first 10 games, including a career-high 21-minute outing against Pittsburgh. He has rewarded that faith with five quick goals.

Knies is playing only a smidge more at five-on-five. It’s his special teams’ deployment that’s grown, as he’s landed slots on both the penalty kill (1:40 per game) and power play (2:11). He ranks fourth among Leaf forwards in time on ice per game.

Berube consistently played one forward a lot — over 20 minutes annually — during his St. Louis Blues days and that was Ryan O’Reilly. Turns out things change when you have both Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner on your bench.

Matthews and Marner continue to log huge minutes under Berube, almost identical nightly averages from last season.

What has changed, for Matthews more than Marner, is how those minutes are divided up.

Matthews is actually playing the fewest five-on-five minutes of his career on average — about 13 a game, down from nearly 17 a night during the 2020-21 season.

Matthews is not just playing on the penalty kill, but has a substantial role on it. Berube and Lane Lambert, the assistant coach in charge of the PK, dropped Matthews into first-unit duty soon after Pontus Holmberg struggled in the role.

Matthews is averaging more than two minutes per game on the penalty kill this season.

Even last season, when the Leafs first began dabbling with the possibility, his role was minimal (43 seconds on average). Part of what made Keefe reluctant to fully commit was the trade-off the Leafs would be making by doing so: taking five-on-five shifts away from the greatest five-on-five scorer maybe ever.

For now, the Leafs have decided it’s worth it for the boost they’re getting from Matthews on a special teams unit that floundered last season. (It’s at least worth noting Matthews has scored only two five-on-five goals in the first 10 games, albeit with a lot of quality looks.)

Berube started the season with high hopes for Holmberg, who was not only the third-line centre in the season opener against Montreal but a first-unit penalty killer, too. Holmberg has been scaled back since, though he continues to find work on the penalty kill and bottom six.

Bobby McMann, meanwhile, has been a staple in the top nine under Berube and has drawn consistent opportunity on the power play. Unlike Nick Robertson, he’s cashed in offensively, too.

There was an expectation that Robertson would see more minutes this season and he has. Really, all that’s changed is the power play, where Robertson is finally getting a regular turn anytime he’s in the lineup.

With the odd exception, though — such as a 17-minute outing against St. Louis last week — Robertson still isn’t playing a ton and was a first-time healthy scratch this season on Monday night. He needs to start breaking through offensively (he has only one goal and point) for his minutes to grow and his role to stabilize.

The biggest riser after Knies is Steven Lorentz. He played sparingly in Florida last season. It became very clear at training camp, however, that Berube adored him, trusting him as much as any forward.

One of the biggest fallers, surprisingly, is William Nylander. I covered the need for him to play more on Monday. The elimination of his role on the penalty kill is a big part of the drop-off, but he’s also seeing fewer minutes at five-on-five.

Nylander logged almost 15 five-on-five minutes on Monday night, second most of the season. His new role on the revamped power play (playing apart from Matthews), however, could lead to less opportunity on that front.

Also playing less under Berube: John Tavares.

In fact, he’s playing the fewest minutes of his career, though a return to second-line centre might boost those numbers a bit. (A lesser role on the power play, on the other hand, might negate that.)

Tavares had a hat trick in over 17 minutes against the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night. Maybe most interesting was Tavares drawing a nod (and scoring into an empty net) when the Leafs were defending a one-goal lead at the end of regulation. He didn’t get those opportunities much under Keefe.

Who did? That would be David Kämpf, who has seen his stock crash under Berube. Kämpf didn’t see the ice at all late in that Winnipeg game. Last season, he trailed only Nylander, Matthews and Marner among Leaf forwards in minutes played against an empty net.

Kämpf split his time evenly between third- and fourth-line centre under Keefe. He was reliably used for defensive zone draws at five-on-five and was a staple of the No. 1 penalty-killing unit.

Berube still has him killing penalties, but clearly doesn’t trust him anywhere near as much as Keefe did. Kämpf played the fewest minutes of his Leafs career against the Jets, logging just under eight minutes.

Defence

I can’t imagine many players have seen their playing time diminish from last season to this one quite as much as Timothy Liljegren has. Liljegren has played only one game and drew just under 14 minutes, almost six minutes less than he averaged last season.

He has unofficially been buried.

Morgan Rielly, meanwhile, logged almost 24 minutes a game last season. He’s down to about 21.5 on average, which is about what he played two seasons ago.

Some of the dip can be explained by Rielly’s role on the power play. At first, he was on the No. 1 unit. Then, he was off. And now, he’s back on what looks like a 1A unit for the Leafs!

Rielly’s role on special teams is now entirely power-play-related. Three seasons ago, Keefe thought it was important that Rielly, as the team’s No. 1 defenceman, play on the penalty kill. He logged almost 140 minutes on the PK during that 2021-22 season.

Now, he plays no role at all there.

Newcomers Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson have also dipped into some of Rielly’s five-on-five opportunities. Rielly averaged over 19 minutes per game there last year. That’s a mark he’s eclipsed just once in 10 tries this season.

He was fourth among Leafs in five-on-five minutes in Winnipeg, trailing Tanev, Ekman-Larsson and Jake McCabe.

Rielly is making the most of those minutes. He’s already scored twice and added two primary assists at five-on-five.

Morgan Rielly’s minutes have dipped from 24 last season to 21.5 on average this season. (John E. Sokolowski / Imagn Images)

Ekman-Larsson may be the most interesting defender to watch this season in Toronto regarding ice time. The Leafs are asking him to play top-four minutes after a resurgent 2023-24 campaign that saw him operating mostly on Florida’s third pair.

After a strong start, the results have been a little bumpier for Ekman-Larsson, though he had a positive 21-minute night against the Jets on Monday. The 33-year-old has been increasingly marginalized on the penalty kill but will continue to quarterback at least one power-play unit (the Nylander unit currently).

Benoit continues to be a mainstay on the PK, but his minutes have dipped under Berube. That’s explained by the fact he’s no longer playing alongside McCabe on what was then the Leafs No. 2 pair.

Benoit is now exclusively a third-pairing defenceman. The Leafs are winning only 44 percent of the expected goals when he’s out there, a sluggish mark partly explained by Benoit spending most of his shifts in the defensive zone.

His partnership with Conor Timmins has been up and down at best.

Timmins has surprisingly seen his stock rise dramatically under Berube. He’s actually playing slightly less on average than last year. The difference is he’s playing just about every night and has become a go-to on the penalty kill for the first time in his NHL career.

Timmins has already logged more short-handed minutes in just eight games — almost 18 minutes — than in any other NHL season (last season: 2:16).

Whether that will continue remains to be seen. Timmins’ short-handed underlying numbers are easily the worst among Leaf regulars on defence.

Tanev’s minutes look very similar to last season, which he split between Calgary and Dallas. Will that change in the weeks and months ahead? Perhaps, though the Leafs have to be mindful of his age and playing style. Tanev logged a season-high (and team-high) 24.5 minutes on Monday.

The Leafs are winning almost 60 percent of the expected goals when he’s out there, the best mark on the team.

— Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference and Stathead

(Top photo of Matthew Knies: Terrence Lee / Imagn Images)