In this busy time of year, one of my favourite traditions is to a few moments to discuss the Toronto Maple Leafs’ defensive depth situation. It didn’t seem likely that there would be any need to understand the depth beyond Dakota Mermis, but due to his injury on Monday, here we are discussing who replaces Mermis on the Leafs roster.

With Marshall Rifai getting healthy enough to play it seems like he’d be a worthwhile consideration but given that he hasn’t played since training camp, a bit of a conditioning stint would seem to be in order. Both Henry Thrun (the player the Leafs chose to call up) and William Villeneuve are promising youthful options and a couple of weeks ago the case would be strong for Toronto finding opportunities to play their younger, less experienced players more often, but it doesn’t take long to right the ship in the parity driven NHL, and the Leafs might want to bank on experience. Enter Matt Benning.

The case for Matt Benning is driven from a few different angles. The first being that the Leafs stumbled into a success story with Troy Stecher. The undersized, hardworking defenceman has made the most of chance to prove he still belongs in the NHL to the point where he’s looked like the Leafs’ top defender many nights. There are a lot of similarities in Stecher and Benning’s games that there should be some hope that he too could work well under Craig Berube and Mike Van Ryn. At the very least, Benning is comfortable as a minute eater, and that’s not necessarily something that Berube would want from Thrun, Villeneuve, or even Rifai at this point. Benning understands the safe, low event ask of him that Berube also trusts in Stecher and Mermis.

The other part of the case is that Benning, as a right shot, is a direct replacement for Philippe Myers on the bottom pairing and the main reason of looking at a defensive recall is to limit the amount of time Myers is spending in the lineup. Saying things haven’t gone well for Myers is a huge understatement and while it seems that the Leafs still believe in him, they certainly don’t want to use him every night. Benning is the best path to avoiding him.

And Benning getting into the lineup and playing a few games for the Leafs gives Matt a chance to show that he can still be considered an NHLer (or maybe the opposite will happen, but let’s choose optimism). This is probably the best chance Benning will have with the Leafs to show his value and while it’s unlikely that he’d still be a Leaf after the return of Tanev, Carlo, Mermis, Rifai, etc., he can showcase himself to other clubs in the process and make his case as a waivers pickup or a trade that would benefit the Leafs by getting his contract completely off their cap. Benning being motivated to find work should help the Leafs get the most out of a call up.

Benning hasn’t played a ton for the Marlies this season. He’s only skated in ten games but has picked up six assists in those contests. He’s missed sometime due to injury this year as well but has recently come back and come back strong and the Leafs might also want to favour the hot hand on the farm.

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