Maple Leafs Can Regain Power Play Dominance With One Minor Tweak

For the Toronto Maple Leafs, their power play has become their bread and butter over the last decade with players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, and William Nylander featuring prominently on the top unit.

Unfortunately they've taken a bit of a step back in recent years after having led the league with a 27.27% success rate in 2021-22 and finishing a close second in 2022-23 at 26.02%. Since then they held a 7th place finish in 2023-24 and a 9th place finish last year.

With their power play struggling to start the season with 3 goals in 34 opportunities, the Leafs altered their top unit by going with 5 forwards instead of the usual 4 forwards and 1 defenseman. It worked almost immediately, which included a dominant period where they went 27 for 97 over the course of 36 games mid-season.

With Marner now out of the fold, the Leafs are going to have to change their top unit, however if they go back to the old set up with 1 defenseman, they should consider Oliver Ekman-Larsson instead of Morgan Rielly.

Perhaps the most important reason for the switch up would be the shoot-first mentality that Ekman-Larsson brings. Even last year, in far less minutes and with Rielly having shared the ice with the top unit, Ekman-Larsson still potted more goals and created far more chances.

Going back a bit, during a 6-year stretch between 2013 and 2019, the Swedish defender notched 49 power play goals and 73 assists for the Arizona Coyotes. Comparatively in a similar 6-year stretch, Rielly notched 8 goals and 97 assists between 2017 and 2023 but was working with a lot more talent than Ekman-Larsson ever had in Arizona.

Deploying a player that can shoot through defenders at a successful rate, while also manning the point alongside Matthews and Nylander, could be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Rielly was taken off the top unit for a reason and while he's a great playmaker, his skill set could be better utilized with the second unit, where he can dictate the course of action. He's never scored more than 3 power play goals in a season and has just 3 goals over his last 3 years.

Even in his limited minutes over the last few seasons, Ekman-Larsson has shown he still has a knack for scoring and setting up his mates. It's a tweak worth considering that could help the Leafs avoid any setbacks in the early portion of the season, similarly to last year.