With his season debut seemingly imminent, it’s astonishing how many people have already written off Calle Jarnkrok.

Contrary to popular belief, when healthy, the 33-year-old, who’s yet to play a game this season due to sports hernia surgery, is a very serviceable player.

In fact, in the long run, I fully expect the veteran forward to provide a bigger spark to Toronto’s bottom six than people think. In many ways, it’s like getting a deadline pick-up without paying the price. Moral of the story: Don’t sleep on him.

Of course, a lot of the negativity surrounding Jarnkrok stems from how he performed in the 2023-24 campaign, specifically in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Incredibly, much to the chagrin of Leafs Nation, he failed to notch a single point in last spring’s first-round series with the Boston Bruins. Additionally, in 52 regular season outings, he mustered 10 goals and 21 points, which was a bit of a dip from his first season in Toronto.

Yup, that will do it

As we’ve learned time and time again in this market, if you struggle in the playoffs, that doesn’t bode well for your perception.

Well, lucky for Jarnkrok, he has a chance to prove his doubters wrong. On top of that, I’m not big on excuses and this is just merrily speculation on my part, but there’s no way he was even remotely close to being completely healthy for that series with Boston. If you recall, Jarnkrok missed the end of the regular season before returning for Game 1. Any way you slice it, Jarnkrok needs to be an offensive difference-maker in Toronto’s bottom six if they have any shot of doing something substantial.

At the very least, I’m just imploring people to give him a chance. The Leafs have the luxury of activating someone who’s played over 700 games in the NHL. On top of that, it’s easy to forget but Jarnkrok potted 20 goals two seasons ago. Simply put, there’s no question that he’s an upgrade on a lot of what they currently have in the bottom-six.

All in all, it will be interesting to see how the Leafs choose to deploy Jarnkrok upon his return to the lineup. Sheldon Keefe loved him. Now, he will have to prove himself all over again to Craig Berube and his staff. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

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