For this installment of the Season in Review series, we’ll be taking a look at the… interesting season from Ron Hainsey.

First, for all the nerds, a quick graph to describe Ron Hainsey’s play this season.

Pretty accurate, if I may say so myself.

He started out as a steady option as a top pair right side defender, playing well enough to make up for Rielly’s defensive errors, and making that pair a pretty good top pair. But, Ron Hainsey was 36-37 this season. And 36 year old Ron Hainsey just came off of a season where he played in the playofffs for the first time in his career, winning the Cup while playing big minutes.

Basically, fatigue was inevitable, and it hit Mr. Hainsey hard. But Babcock didn’t seem to notice, so much to the point that he was still playing him top minutes for the remaining five games AFTER the Leafs clinched a playoff spot. That may change up expectations for him next season, as I will discuss later on.

Offensively, Hainsey actually had a solid season. He had 23 points in 80 games, which marked the first time he had surpassed the 20 point plateau since 2009-10 with the Atlanta Thrashers, where he had 26 points. Now, only 16 of those were at even strength, and only 9 of those 16 were primary points, so he benefited from that. Also, it helped that he was passing to one of the deepest forward cores in the league, and was playing alongside a 52 point defenseman.

But, if you break it down a bit more, not as appealling. Among defensemen with at least 500 5v5 minutes this season, Ron Hainsey’s 0.71 P/60 this season ranked 111th, so barely top 4 D production, and his 0.4 P1/60 ranked 127th, so high end top 6 D production. Not that he was signed to put up points, but it makes a decent season look a little less impressive.

In terms of his possession metrics, he did not fair well. While his numbers weren’t atrocious, especially considering he was playing on the top pair, but it wasn’t ideal, especially compared to the rest of the league. His 48.47% 5v5 CF% ranked 145th in the league, the equivalent to a bottom pair defenseman, and his 49.71% 5v5 xGF% ranked 122nd in the league, also bottom pairing.

The big story with Hainsey this season was his PK usage. His 314:55 minutes on the penalty kill lead all NHLers in TOI, by a wide margin too, as second place was Chara with 258:14. Which would be fine, if he didn’t rank 187th out of 357 in PK CA/60 with 103.26. That’s roughly middle of the pack, which isn’t bad, but not good enough to excuse almost an extra hour of PK time over the next NHL player.

The other big story was his decline. I mentioned fatigue earlier, but it really hit him hard. He actually had pretty good possession numbers to start, which goes to show how bad he fell off considering how mediocre they are now. To make matters worse, he saved his worst for the postseason, when he was really exposed by the Bruins, particularly in game 1 and 2.

This is a tough grade to give, as we know what Hainsey is capable of, and if put into that role, he’d probably be fine. But, Babcock doesn’t know this, and because of that, it reflects very poorly on Hainsey’s behalf. Therefore, he gets a C, but like a C in Gr. 11 Functions. Obviously he can’t handle something as tough as functions, but maybe if you put him in mixed level math instead, he’d do a lot better.

You know who Ron Hainsey’s closest comparable was this season possession-wise? With a 48.48% CF% and a 49.85% xGF%, Matt Hunwick was either one or two spots away from Hainsey in defensemen rankings in those stats. Funny, considering that Pittsburgh and Toronto essentially swapped those defensemen last offseason through free agency. Only difference is Hainsey is probably on the better contract, so I’ll take it.

This is Hainsey’s highlight not only because it was a late game winner, and not only because it was against Boston, but because it was clearly goalie interference, and it got so many Bruins fans mad that night, and looking back, that couldn’t make me any happier.

Also, my son William assisted on it as well.

It shouldn’t come as a news flash to Leafs fans that the Leafs need to fix their right side on defense. Running Hainsey, Zaitsev, and Polak for most of last season was a trainwreck, and they need to make adjustments there if they want to be true contenders.

Ideally, the Leafs bring in one option as an improvement on the right side, whether that be externally (Karlsson? Carlson?) or internally (Liljegren?). If they can get one, hopefully they can get one of Rielly, Gardiner, or Dermott to play on the right side, and have that as their top four. That would leave Hainsey as a 6/7 option, hopefully swapping with Borgman/Rosen, someone like that, and play with Zaitsev.

Not only would that give Hainsey a reduced role that he could handle, it would also give him the opportunity to get rested routinely, which at 37 years old, he’s going to need.

Of course, this is assuming that Babcock won’t continue to kill him on the penalty kill, which we all know he still will.

So, maybe it would be better if he was traded?