The Toronto Maple Leafs roll along midway through the season. And yet, their most effective D-man has not gotten nearly enough credit as he's placed on the IR.
We don't talk enough about T.J. Brodie.
In a market that sees press box mainstays fill countless hours of dead air in any given week, the Toronto Maple Leafs' best all-around defenseman, the lynchpin of the club's blueline, quizzically draws nary a peep. That's unless there's news about him, such as being placed on the injured reserve on Tuesday for the second time this season.
That's by design, though.
Brodie is one of the more understated players in the entire NHL. The 32-year-old eschews the spotlight with a passion despite the fishbowl he finds himself in – for instance, following Toronto's victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday night, Brodie was one of four Maple Leafs to speak to the media, with the first three fielding questions for at least two and a half minutes each.
Brodie's scrum lasted a whopping 31 seconds. And everyone, this reporter included, was totally cool with it.
It's safe to say Brodie lets his play speak for itself. And as he approaches the midway point of his third season in Toronto after arriving as a coveted free agent back in 2019, it certainly has – even if the more subtle strengths of Brodie's game don't necessarily foster the level of dialogue they should.
Inside the Maple Leafs' locker room, though, Brodie's importance is not a state secret.
Far from it, in fact.
"I think that's a big compliment for a defenseman, really. To go unnoticed," said Leafs blueliner Justin Holl, with whom Brodie has spent the second-most minutes partnered alongside this season.
"He cleans up a lot of errors and makes dangerous plays not so dangerous anymore. That's one of his great strengths, I think."
"As his teammates, we really appreciate him and value what he does." - Morgan Rielly on T.J. Brodie
To the Maple Leafs, Brodie is the safety net, the damn that Sheldon Keefe uses to quell the bleeding.
Holl knows that fact quite well himself, frankly, having been the recipient of a Brodie-shaped parachute when he needed it most earlier this year. With Holl fighting through a career-worst stretch of play to begin the season, Keefe paired his struggling defenseman with his steadiest on Nov. 2 in the hopes of facilitating a turnaround.
Through the first 10 games of the season, the Leafs were finding themselves outshot, outscored and out-chanced with Holl on the ice at 5-on-5. Since then, when Holl has been strapped to Brodie, the two have generated a sterling 54.79 percent expected-goal share along with 52.88 percent of the scoring chances while also outscoring opponents by a 7-3 margin.
"A big part of it is he plays low-event hockey. Which, again, is what you want from a defenseman," said Holl.
"He's just totally responsible and is always there for his partner."
That Brodie-Holl pair didn't last forever, of course. A two-week absence from Brodie as he nursed an oblique injury in early December split the two apart out of necessity.
But ever since that early stretch together, Holl has managed to more or less regain his form as a useful NHL defenseman, stepping up noticeably over the past month or so when needed as injuries robbed Toronto of half its top six, ultimately helping steady the ship until their return.
"I don't really follow media, so I don't really know what gets talked about or not. But, obviously, he's a huge part of this team," said Timothy Liljegren of Brodie's under-the-radar tendencies.
"He makes a lot of small plays that no one really talks about. I mean, it's usually the offense you talk about, but obviously, he's very good defensively, kills a lot of time on the penalty kill for us, and he's just a steady, solid defenseman for us."
The hallmark of a steady defenseman is how your team fares on the whole with you on the ice.
Well, Brodie has played 28 games this season, during which he's started the majority of his shifts in the defensive zone, logged over 21 minutes per night in ice time, and anchored the club's top penalty-killing unit while also facing off against the best opposing teams have to offer at 5-on-5.
In that time, the Maple Leafs emerged from the chaos as the best team on the ice by a wide margin, racking up dazzling expected-goal and scoring chance shares of 55.54 percent and 56.01 percent, respectively, in Brodie's even-strength usage. This has undoubtedly helped them outscore their opponents 21-17 and easily win the high-danger battle in goals and chances.
And while that likely won't be enough to put him in contention for the Norris Trophy, Brodie does have a decent shot at some other hardware this season all the same: the Lady Byng, largely thanks to his whopping total of four penalty minutes as of Jan. 10.
Case in point, not a single aspect of Brodie's game hurts the Maple Leafs' chances of winning hockey games. And in what is perhaps the most win-or-bust season in franchise history, that seems like quite the asset to have.
"As his teammates, we really appreciate him and value what he does," said Morgan Rielly, Brodie's most common defense partner as a Leaf with whom he was just reunited before Brodie's latest injury.
"Brodes has been a great player for us ever since he got here and he brings a lot to our group. So, he's extremely important to what we're doing."
And as for his understated nature, don't let Brodie fool you. There's more spark there than he lets on.
"He's a really funny guy undercover," said Holl of his stone-faced teammate.
"He's definitely a quieter guy, don't get me wrong. But he's also not afraid to chirp people. He just says a lot of funny stuff."
Unfortunately, it appears as if Brodie's stand-up routine will never see the light of day. But if that means his role as their blueline's guiding hand remains intact, that's a sacrifice the Leafs and their fans will be happy to make.
And as he heads back to the IR, Toronto will see once again just how important he is to the squad when he's not on the ice.