The Toronto Maple Leafs are going through a heavy slump at the moment, and while scooping a bottom-pair defenceman off waivers is a far cry from what the team truly needs to get back into a rhythm, the claim of Troy Stecher could help bandage one of the wounds.

Stecher, 31, is an undersized right-handed defenceman who is mobile and has strong defensive instincts. You look at this player on paper and there doesn’t seem to be an immediate fix, considering he’s on his seventh team in 10 years and has never put up more than 24 points in a season. For a team that’s currently down two of their three right-handed defencemen, Stecher could slow down the bleeding while the team is battling the injury bug, and round out their defensive corps nicely once everyone is back to full health.

“Obviously excited for a fresh start, seeing the team and how competitive they are and where they are in the standings,” Stecher told reporters after practice on Monday. “It kind of goes hand in hand with the way I play, a lot of motivation. “I have a chip on my shoulder and I think the team does as well.”

A player who is motivated and will leave it all out on the ice every shift is music to the ears of Leafs fans, even if he won’t be able to single-handedly win them games. Considering the team never lost more than three games in a row last season, with their current losing streak at five games, the bar is on the floor at the moment. Claiming Stecher puts them in a position where they won’t have to rely on players like Philippe Myers and Dakota Mermis for immediate relief when injuries inevitably happen. Plus, even if he’s not racking up goals and assists left and right, he’s a strong skater and has a good breakout pass, which is an area the Leafs have struggled mightily in this season.

With all due respect to Simon Benoit, who impressed with the Maple Leafs despite all the odds against him in 2023-24 after he was cut by the Anaheim Ducks, the Leafs probably don’t want him in their top-six at full health. He’s had his moments with the team, between his willingness to drop the gloves and his unprecedented overtime-winning goal in Game 3 against the Ottawa Senators, but overall, the experiment of having him on the bottom pair with Oliver Ekman-Larsson and requiring one of them to play on their off-side produced net-negative results.

But, if you slide Stecher in there, who spent much of the 2024-25 season skating with Darnell Nurse and letting him flourish offensively, there could be a natural fix. Ekman-Larsson gets to play his strong side with a defence-first, fearless partner who will do the dirty work and throw himself into corner battles and in front of shots. That leaves you with the versatility to experiment with different pairs in the top four. You could go with last season’s shutdown pair of Chris Tanev and Jake McCabe and hope Morgan Rielly and Brandon Carlo can find a groove, and if that doesn’t work, there are other combinations to be tested. At the end of the day, the Maple Leafs’ defensive corps at full health features two left-handed offence-first players, one left-handed two-way player, and three right-handed defence-first players. Having each player on their strong side alone could help them win a few extra games.

While the Maple Leafs as a whole are under the biggest microscope in sports at the moment, Stecher has nothing to lose. He spoke about where he gets his motivation from and kept things blunt about where his mindset was as he gets ready to debut for the Leafs.

“Where do you want me to start, my pro career or before that?” Stecher said to a room of laughs when asked when he developed a chip on his shoulder. “Being told ‘no’ my whole life, being a smaller guy, I’ve reached the NHL now and it’s my tenth year and seventh team. So, I’m just trying to kind of prove people wrong, and more than anything try to prove myself right.”

It’s easy to claim that the sky is falling during a five-game losing streak, especially for a team like Toronto that has been under more pressure than anyone to succeed. But the reality is that when you’re struggling like this, all it takes is one bounce to inject the team with some confidence and get the wheels turning in the right direction. Stecher isn’t going to save the season, nor should he be expected to, but he’ll be bringing a 110 percent effort to the team from the moment he suits up for a game, and the investment could pay off for them down the line.

“I just think it’s kind of the nature of the way things are going right now. We’re on a bit of a skid, but all it takes is one bounce to get back into the win column.”