Maple Leafs Coaching Staff Deserves A Lot of Credit For Helping Defenseman Rediscover Himself

When the Toronto Maple Leafs signed defenseman Simon Benoit late in the summer of 2023, not many could have predicted his meteoric rise after what could be categorized as one of the worst seasons in recent memory.

In 2022-23, Benoit posted a minus-29 rating in 78 contests to go along with 3 goals and 10 points. He did add 128 blocked shots and 216 hits, but his underlying numbers were nowhere near average as he amassed a CF% of 35.9 and a FF% of 35.3

To put that into perspective, he finished the previous season with a CF% of 43.3 and a FF% of 42.6 to go with a minus-5 rating in 53 games. His season was so bad that it was ranked as the worst individual campaign of the decade through Dom Luszczyszyn's net rating model from the Athletic.

It's a model that calculates an individual's contribution to team success through offensive and defensive metrics. Benoit came through with a -20.7 rating, which was 3.2 worse than Matt Bartkowski's -17.5 rating in 2015-16.

What makes these numbers more impressive is that Benoit transformed himself into a very serviceable defenseman with the Leafs within a calendar year. He's become a mainstay on the third pair and has provided the Leafs with stout defensive plays and physicality, which resulted in a contract extension in 2024.

From 2022-23 to 2023-24, Benoit saw nearly an 11% improvement in his CF% and over 12% in his FF%. The Leafs coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for finding the right role for the bruising defender as he's truly found his niche with Toronto.

Even more recently, Benoit accumulated 59 PIMs, 111 blocked shots, and 204 hits across 78 regular season games this past year. He was just as good in the playoffs where he added 42 hits and 39 blocked shots in 13 post-season contests, as well the overtime winner in Game 3 against Ottawa in the first round.

Expect more of the same level of success in 2025-26 as Benoit looks to finish his checks, block as many shots as possible, and get into the faces of his opponents all year long.