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Toronto Maple Leafs quarter-season report card: Who is the MVP so far?

By David Morassutti

TORONTO,ON - SEPTEMBER 21: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs sets up the power play against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL pre-season game at Scotiabank Arena on September 21, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images)
TORONTO,ON - SEPTEMBER 21: John Tavares #91 of the Toronto Maple Leafs sets up the power play against the Buffalo Sabres during an NHL pre-season game at Scotiabank Arena on September 21, 2018 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Maple Leafs defeated the Sabres 5-3. (Photo by Claus Andersen/Getty Images) /
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Toronto Maple Leafs
NEWARK, NJ – APRIL 05: Mike Babcock of the Toronto Maple Leafs handles bench duties against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on April 5, 2018 in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils defeated the Maple Leafs 2-1 to clinch a playoff position. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /

Mike Babcock

The Leafs head coach has his fans and his haters but he was given a dream scenario with Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Nazem Kadri as his top three centres. Not many teams have that depth and talent down the middle and there were many questions as to how Babcock was going to manage it.

Where the biggest challenge has been for Babcock is on the blueline and while there are many complaining about Ron Hainsey playing on the top pairing (which there is justification for) the Leafs coach probably feels like he doesn’t have any other options to consider. One noticeable change is Hainey not playing the most on the penalty as Nikita Zaitsev leads the team with 3:06 TOI per game.

This is something Babcock will have to address since both Hainey and Zaitsev are at the bottom for CF% among Leafs defenceman. Another area of concern is Frederik Andersen‘s workload which hasn’t been reduced in the early going (although it’s hard to not ride the hot hand).

B. <em>Has done a good job managing the forwards for the most part but should consider shaking things up on the blueline and give <a rel=. . . Mike Babcock

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