While the Toronto Maple Leafs had a strong regular season and better playoff outcome winning a series for the first time since 2004, there’s still a lot to be said in regards to performances from players on the roster.
There has been a major roster overall where players such as Alexander Kerfoot, Justin Holl and Michael Bunting left in free agency, but also underperformed at times during the season. Despite the turnover, there were times where other players stood out in a big way, but also where the play was a little disappointing considering what we’ve seen previously.
Even for players at the NHL level, there is always room for improvement as is the case for another opportunity to turn things around and find some consistency. Here are three players looking for bounce back seasons with the Maple Leafs in 2023-24.
David Kämpf
David Kämpf has emerged a very strong depth, defensive specialist for the Maple Leafs over the last two seasons. As a result, it earned him a salary increase from the $1.5 million he was making before to $2.4 million over the next four seasons.
However, Kämpf’s goals dropped from 11 in 2021-22 to seven last season but managed to record 27 points– the most of his career to date. His underlying numbers really aren’t that impressive, as he saw significant drops in key offensive categories at five-on-five.
| Statistic | Kämpf in 2021-22 | Kämpf in 2022-23 |
| CF% | 50.99 | 47.55 |
| GF% | 50.67 | 49.33 |
| xG% | 51.20 | 48.77 |
| SCF% | 51.50 | 48.44 |
Kämpf was producing very well as a bottom-six forward in 2021-22 but dropped below league average last season. Despite moving up and down as the third and fourth line centre position, his role didn’t change as it’s interesting to see those numbers dip as low as they did. Even defensively, his overall game was hit or miss at times as he didn’t seem to have the same impact as he did the previous season.
He was extremely productive when Alexander Kerfoot and Pierre Engvall were on his line. With a minimum of 50 minutes played, the line had a Corsi for percentage of 52.6 and goals percentage of 55.6. With both players out of the picture, will he adapt and look to find that same chemistry with other line mates?
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While the numbers aren’t great as he got hemmed in the defensive zone more so last season, he’s still a fixture on the penalty kill and in the faceoff dot. He had a faceoff winning percentage of 51.5 while starting 81.5% of the time in the defensive zone. If he can get back to his play like the previous season, then Kämpf will be a big factor once again.
Calle Jarnkrok
The Maple Leafs had to fill the void of a top-six winger on the left side as that was one area of weakness the team lacked. Calle Jarnkrok started the season off in a bottom-six role, but eventually found himself in the top-six as he could keep up with the likes of Auston Matthew and Mitch Marner.
For the most part, Jarnkrok did show that he can be a factor in the regular season with his energy and speed to generate chances. However, when the playoffs rolled in, his play wasn’t as nearly as impactful as he only had three points in 11 games. His scoring chances for at 5-on-5 in the regular season was at 51.72, but dropped to 46.72 in the postseason. Jarnkrok is at his most dangerous when he’s utilizing his speed and getting in on the attack quickly. While the promise as a middle six forward in the regular season wasn’t quite as evident in the postseason, you can be sure that even he knows that he has a lot more to give.
While the Maple Leafs now have the depth up front where Jarnkrok may not be suited for a top-six role, he can still be an impactful bottom-six winger who can still play with great energy. His shot is definitely a threat as he scored 20 goals last season as he can provide some steady secondary scoring for this team. His shooting percentage probably wasn’t sustainable at 18.9%, but he made everything count. That wasn’t there in the playoffs.
If the Maple Leafs are to go on another playoff run, Jarnkrok needs to be able to find that game to game consistency and step up and provide secondary offense. Then, he will definitely have a greater impact than last season.
John Klingberg
It doesn’t feel right to add in a newly signed player for the Maple Leafs on this list before he even plays a game with his new team, but John Klingberg has seen his fair share of struggles in the past going back to the Dallas Stars. After a 67-point season in 2017-18, it seemed like that was going to be the norm for him. At 31 years old, he’s still trying to prove his worth and value.
Since then, his production declined to the 30 and 40-point range with his defensive deficiencies catching up to him with his offense first mindset. He would sign a one-year, $7 million contract to try and prove himself with the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks weren’t by any means a strong team, but Klingberg did manage to put up 24 points. After a trade at the deadline going to the Minnesota Wild seemed to have sparked his confidence as his numbers were better.
While he’s known for his ability to drive the play and get pucks on net, Klingberg is once again looking to find some consistency, especially on the defensive side. While he’s known to taking risks, Ryan Reaves– who previously played with the Wild before signing with the Maple Leafs- said that there was a willingness to show improvements defensively with Klingberg.
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Having another offensive driver and player to get pucks on net will help the team out. Whether or not he can provide a little bit more of a defensive game will be the question. Either way, Klingberg is looking to bounce back after having quite a bit of highs and lows.
Despite having strong seasons previously, players tend to have a bad season or two. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before. Though, there’s always the potential for a bounce back and turn things around for the better. The Maple Leafs have players that have shown their strengths and if they can find the consistency, they’ll be in a great spot.
Statistics from Natural Stat Trick, Hockey Reference and Money Puck.
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