Leafs by the Numbers: Martin Marincin

2020 is over. Finally.

It felt like everything bad that could possibly happen last year, did. Hockey was postponed due to Covid-19, everyone was asked to stay in their houses to slow the spread and when we finally had a taste of freedom — the second wave came and now we’re back in lockdown.

Although most of the year was horrible, there was some good that came out of it. That’s also why I’m writing this article for you today.

This was probably the highlight of my year. If you don’t know the story, I promise I’ll explain it quick. After this goal, I tweeted “500 RT’s and I’ll buy a Martin Marincin jersey” and after 20 minutes, I got well over 500 retweets and the next day I bought the jersey.

Yes, I am an owner of a Toronto Maple Leafs Marincin jersey.

No, it’s not the number of games he’s played, plus his point total put together. This is the total that was rung up at the cash register when I bought his jersey at the beginning of March.

Marincin isn’t the most liked player on the Maple Leafs. Actually, people would rather see him sit in the press box than sit on the bench. But there’s a lot to his game that you may miss because as you know, he’s actually better without the puck than with it.

The reason why the Leafs like him so much is because of his ability to cut off passes through the slot, break up plays and be a penalty-kill specialist. He doesn’t get into games often, but when he does — he shines. At least, he tries to.

But that’s all that matters isn’t it? Work hard and get rewarded, right?

These By the numbers articles are supposed to give you reasons why he’s a valuable member to the Maple Leafs. So with that being said, I’m changing my number.

More than all I’ve explained about Marincin’s play, his most important attribute is him being present. We know he’s not a player who should be in the lineup every single night, but we also know that he deserves to be slotted in if there’s an injury. If we wanted to talk about depth defencemen in the NHL, I’d still say the Maple Leafs are lucky to have Marincin as just that.

People think that Toronto is better without him, but if that was the case, they wouldn’t have re-signed him (I can now say last year). I could go even farther to say that I think the Maple Leafs will re-sign him again at some point this year because they need someone like that.

He’s a defenceman who can be placed anywhere in the lineup and will sometimes make a difference. It’s also not a problem to have too many depth pieces on your roster and I’m sure Kyle Dubas knows that. Whether he’s on the Leafs, their taxi squad or on the Toronto Marlies, Marincin will be needed.

The 28-year-old is good. And when he scores the Stanley Cup winning goal for the Toronto Maple Leafs, you too will join me in buying one of his jerseys.