Travis Dermott deserves a chance to shine in a top-four role

Ask any hockey fan what the biggest problem with the Toronto Maple Leafs is and they’ll probably gesture aggressively towards their blue line.

It's pretty clear why, too. The Leafs are one of if not the first team that comes to mind when one contemplates the league's more high-octane, low-defensive detail teams that make the highlight reels but never arrive during Stanley Cup presentations.

There's something to it. They rank below average across the board no matter the defensive prism through which one tries to see this group -- goals against to shots against to expected goals against.

It would only stand to reason then that they would covet the few players helping to keep the puck out of the net consistently - and yet one of their strongest defensive players analytically finds himself in tra