'I Can Do A Better Job': Darren Raddysh Explains Why He Hasn't Scored His First Goal For Maple Leafs Yet

As the Toronto Maple Leafs gear up for game No. 17 of this regular season against the Utah Mammoth, marquee off-season addition Darren Raddysh still hasn't scored his first goal since joining his new team.

Appearing in all 16 outings so far, Raddysh has provided nine assists and averaged a team-high 23:40 of ice time per game. Last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the 30-year-old scored 22 goals and 70 points. He finished seventh in scoring among defensemen and tied for the third-most goals in that campaign.

"It's a new year. Whatever you did last year, that's in the past," Raddysh said after Tuesday's morning skate. "If I don't score a goal all year and we go on a long run and win the Stanley Cup, I'm okay with that. So I'm just trying to help the team win as best as possible and just go about my business each and every day."

By this time last season, the Toronto native also had nine points after 16 games, but two of them were goals

"Yeah, I think I like to shoot the puck a little bit more," Raddysh said. "You know, I think there's times when maybe I'm passing it too much, or I do shoot it no one's at the net front. That's maybe not a good shot for me. But yeah, I think just try to keep doing what I do. Try to go about my business, and eventually one will fall."

It's not like Raddysh hasn't been looking to put the puck on net and challenge the opposition goaltender. He's tied for the fourth-most shots on goal on the team, recording 35 of them, tied with Kirill Marchenko. Only Jack Roslovic, Auston Matthews and William Nylander have shot the puck more than the Maple Leafs' blueliner.

Coming into this season, it was well documented the type of release and power Raddysh has on his shot. So is it possible that each team Toronto comes up against has found ways to close out the effectiveness of his shot?

"I think even last year, halfway through the season, I noticed that quite a bit," he admitted. "Guys are trying to get in the lanes, and I was getting taken away a little bit more. So, you know, I just adapted to that. That's how hockey goes, and you're getting a pre-scout, skilled guys that can shoot the puck, and you want to take them away. So I think I can do a better job of trying to get open a bit more."

Maple Leafs head coach Jim Hiller said that he isn't concerned with the lack of goals coming from Raddysh to start the season.

"Most were on the power play, and our power play is pretty effective, and he's been an excellent distributor, more so than a shooter on the power play this year so far," Hiller said of Raddysh's offensive game. "I think some of his best looks have been blocked. You know, in desperation plays by the opposition, made some pretty good blocks. If you can think back, he's come in from that point, he's bombed a couple, and they've gotten blocked. So those were his most dangerous opportunities. 

"But I'm not necessarily concerned with that. He's moving the puck for us. I don't know if we expected him to be this strong defensively, playing some of those hard minutes against top players. So we like his game overall."

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