Simon Benoit was a fun little story in 2023-24. He was brought in as an afterthought and a head scratching one at that. Statistically he seemed like he was the worst defenceman in the NHL and he was barely cracking the lineup of the worst team in hockey. His claim to fame was that he played with John Klingberg, an equally head scratching acquisition. And while Benoit looked like a disaster waiting to happen, he was instead a sign that Brad Treliving did have an eye for depth talent that could serve a purpose.

Benoit went on to have a solid 2023-24 campaign on the bottom pairing and came back in 2024-25 showing that he wasn’t a one year wonder. Some of the excitement might have worn off, people might have stopped caring about his appreciation for milk, but he was still a serviceable bottom pairing defender. Arguably he was that again in 2025-26, but there were a number of caveats that prevent us from saying that Benoit’s season was a success.

The Toronto Maple Leafs season was never going to be won or lost by the performance of their sixth defenceman but the fact that Simon Benoit was put in situations where he had to repeatedly fill a role beyond that of sixth defenceman was a reoccurring problem throughout 2025-26. That isn’t a Benoit problem as much as it was Brad Treliving’s problem with defensive depth and a Craig Berube/Mike Van Ryn problem for deploying Benoit in ways that he was set up for failure when it could have been avoided.

Benoit was hit hard twice in his usage this season. With Tanev being out and Oliver Ekman-Larsson having a strong statistical season, his 2024-25 partner was yanked away from him to play a bigger role on the Leafs. And as injuries to Rielly, McCabe, Carlo, and Ekman-Larsson hit throughout the season, having Benoit play up in the lineup became a requirement as well. That isn’t a task suited to him, and it showed.

Additionally, not having Ekman-Larsson as a partner and instead spending a lot of time playing with Philippe Myers and Troy Stecher meant that when Benoit was playing in a bottom pairing role, he didn’t have someone doing the heavy lifting for him and his results declined.

There wasn’t a good fix or too much of a positive story to tell anywhere on the Maple Leafs blueline in 2025-26 and the struggles in net didn’t help either and while Benoit is hardly the player to blame, he was right when he said he could have been better and the Leafs now know that there isn’t an opportunity to step up beyond what they’ve gotten out of him.

Those are some ugly numbers reminiscent of Benoit’s final year in Anaheim and in complete alignment with a Leafs blueline that stunk up the NHL.

Benoit played with Jake McCabe more than any other partner this year, primarily in the days before Troy Stecher arrived. After Stecher arrived, Benoit played more with Philippe Myers again and after there were enough healthy Leafs defencemen, Benoit and Stecher would play together as a bottom pairing, which didn’t work out particularly well for either one of them.

As much as Benoit is meant to be a sixth or seventh defenceman that can complement the right bottom partner, when he was used in a bottom pairing role with another defenceman of similar abilities, Benoit struggled and it’s hard to make a case that he’s the right fit for the Maple Leafs moving forward as they try to repair their blueline.

He is a safe physical presence, his high hit count and respectable blocked shot totals show that he has value as a 7th defenceman that can come in as a safe option, but his overwhelmingly flawed results at 5v5 shouldn’t have him in the lineup every night like the Leafs have been using him. His penalty killing results have been decent but it’s unlikely the Leafs would find any takers for Benoit over the summer and the better option regardless of whether it is a rebuild or retool for the club is to retain Benoit in more of a depth role and see if a late pick can be salvaged for him at the next trade deadline.

I dunno. Here’s an assist:

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