First impressions on Ryan O’Reilly and the new-look Maple Leafs

Ahead of Friday’s trade deadline, the Toronto Maple Leafs have undergone an extreme makeover, acquiring six new roster players, while sending back three players to various teams during a two-week span.

Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari joined the Maple Leafs from St. Louis on Feb. 17 in exchange for 2023 first and third-round picks, a 2024 second-rounder, as well as Mikhail Abramov and Adam Gaudette. Minnesota received a 2025 fourth-round pick for brokering the deal, while Toronto received prospect Josh Pillar.

Toronto wasn’t done after the O’Reilly trade, gaining defenceman Jake McCabe, forward Sam Lafferty, a conditional fifth-round pick in 2024 and a conditional fifth-round pick in 2025 from Chicago in exchange for a conditional 2025 first-round pick, 2026 second-round pick, Joey Anderson and Pavel Gogolev. Chicago elected to retain 50 percent of McCabe’s salary for this season, along with the next two seasons.

Kyle Dubas kept going, acquiring defenceman Erik Gustafsson and a 2023 first-round pick from Washington in exchange for defenceman Rasmus Sandin. The pick sent to Toronto originally belonged to Boston and was acquired by Washington in the Dmitry Orlov trade. Luke Schenn will return to Toronto as the team sent a third-round pick to Vancouver in order to facilitate the reunion.

Pierre Engvall was then shipped to the New York Islanders for a 2024 third-rounder. We’d be stupid to bet against the wheeling-and-dealing Dubas, but it appears that the Maple Leafs have their playoff roster set.

Here’s how the new additions have fared through their first looks with the team, with McCabe and Lafferty suiting up against Edmonton on Wednesday.

The Ontario Line could be an elite two-way unit

It was initially thought that O’Reilly would shift down to third-line centre, but instead, Keefe elected to move John Tavares to the wing for a supercharged line that would become one of the most defensively responsible forward units in the league. This line would play four games together, before Keefe decided to experiment with William Nylander and moved Mitch Marner into a comfort zone with Michael Bunting and Auston Matthews.

O’Reilly developed a well-earned reputation as one of the best defensive forwards in hockey, winning the Selke Trophy in 2019, but this season, he briefly descended into a league-average defensive player. Marner and Tavares are within the top-80 of all qualified players when it comes to expected goals against per 60, so O’Reilly would surely benefit from playing with two elite wingers, and this line sports the potential to be the best two-way group in the league.

Tavares-O’Reilly-Marner barely made a dent during their first game together, but Toronto still skated away with a 5-1 victory over Montreal. And the reverse proved true during their second outing: the Maple Leafs were largely uninspired in a 5-3 loss to Chicago, but the Ontario Line registered their first goal together while controlling 66 percent of the expected goals. Then came the onslaught.

We’ll group O’Reilly’s first two goals together as Marner is the common denominator with primary assists. The threat of both O’Reilly and Tavares crashing the net allowed Marner to operate with a ton of space, which is a death sentence for Buffalo. It also showcased the thinking behind Tavares’ move to the wing: he’s used his size and innate hockey sense to seal off the wall on the forecheck and he’s a threat to come off the wing and glide into prime goal scoring locations, which has been his best asset since he was a prodigy in the OHL.

The Ontario Line’s chemistry continued to grow against Minnesota, controlling 66 percent of the expected goals, with a plus-two shot differential at 5-on-5. O’Reilly provided Toronto with further flexibility throughout the lineup, but what stood out was his dominance in the faceoff circle, winning draws at a 15-2 clip in regulation, before William Nylander scored one of the best goals of his career for the OT winner. Tavares took just six faceoffs, so I asked Sheldon Keefe about what goes into the decisions behind which nominal centre takes the draw.

“I just leave it to them to discuss it,” Keefe told Yahoo Sports Canada. “It’s a combination of keeping the opponents on their toes a little bit, they’re not always seeing the same centre. And also we want to keep John in rhythm taking faceoffs. Stay consistent with it. You never know when you’re going to rely on him and need him for a faceoff. And then power play, specifically, he starts the power play for us on the draw. You don’t want it to be where he steps up for a big draw on the power play and he hasn’t taken one all game. We’re trying to make sure he stays with us and gets some reps. O’Reilly has been out of this world.

“We got lots of options there, we want to keep John in a little bit of a rhythm there, making sure he gets some reps.”

After six games together — four paired as a line — the Ontario Line registered five goals with three against, while continuing to share an increased defensive conscientiousness, controlling 51 percent of the expected goals in all situations. Keefe said he wanted to experiment with his line combinations, and he did immediately after Friday’s 2-1 win against Minnesota.

Nylander breaks up the Ontario Line

William Nylander has been outstanding for the Maple Leafs, he has consistently driven the offence so it figures he’d get a shot with O’Reilly and Tavares. It paid immediate dividends during a 5-1 victory over Seattle, registering two goals with zero against. And once again, Tavares’ ability to generate offence from the wing was on full display, O’Reilly disrupted the Kraken with two expert screens, while Nylander hummed as a threat, circling the faceoff dot looking for clean shooting lanes.

O’Reilly couldn’t have boxed out the Kraken defense any better than this, while Kraken defenceman Carson Soucy couldn’t outmuscle Tavares, who dipped in from the slot, as Mark Giordano notched his fourth goal of the season.

On this goal, O’Reilly is the nominal centre, but Tavares provides immediate puck support and tips it back to the since-departed Rasmus Sandin, who swings the puck to Justin Holl. Holl is prone to holding on the puck for way too long, but he makes the correct play here, Nylander deftly tips his shot and with O’Reilly commanding attention with an expertly placed screen, Tavares punished Seattle’s defense on the rebound for an easy goal.

Keefe will be encouraged to burn the tape from Wednesday’s 5-2 loss to Edmonton, but the O’Reilly line was one of the lone positives, registering five shots with three against, and since they didn’t score any goals, we’ll throw out the expected goals splits. We only have a two-game sample after all, but it seems evident that pairing Tavares and O’Reilly’s strengths make them a nightmare to contain with the slot, in the low cycle, with either nominal centre boxing out defenders, while an elite playmaking wing in Nylander or Marner will wreak havoc with extra time to navigate space.