Dakota Mermis’ injury creates a now or never situation for Matt Benning and the Maple Leafs

During this busy time of year, one of my favorite traditions is to take a moment to discuss the Leafs defensive depth situation. It didn’t seem likely that understanding the depth beyond Dakota Mermis would be necessary, but thanks to his injury on Monday night, here we discuss who replaces Mermis on the Leafs roster.

With Marshall Rifai getting healthy enough to play, he appears to be a valuable consideration, but considering he hasn’t played since training camp, a bit of conditioning seems in order. Both Henry Thrun (the player the Leafs chose to draft) and William Villeneuve promise youthful options and a few weeks ago it would have been strong that Toronto would find opportunities to play their younger, less experienced players more often, but it doesn’t take long to right the ship in the parity-driven NHL, and the Leafs may want to rely on experience. Matt Benning enters.

The case for Matt Benning is examined from a few different angles. The first was that the Leafs ran into a success story with Troy Stecher. The undersized, hard-working defenseman has made the most of the opportunity to prove he still belongs in the NHL, to the point where many nights he looked like the Leafs’ best defenseman. There are a lot of similarities in the games of Stecher and Benning, giving some hope that he too could work well under Craig Berube and Mike Van Ryn. At the very least, Benning is comfortable as a minutes eater, which isn’t necessarily something Craig Berube would want from Thrun, Villeneuve or even Rifai at this point. Benning understands the safe, low event required of him and that Berube also relies on Stecher and Mermis.

The other part of the matter is that Benning, as a right shot, is a direct replacement for Philippe Myers on the bottom pairing and the main reason to look at a defensive recall is to limit the amount of time Myers spends in the lineup. To say things haven’t gone well for Myers is a massive understatement and while it appears the Leafs still believe in him, they certainly don’t want to use him every night. Benning is the best way to avoid him.

And Benning getting into the lineup and playing a few games for the Leafs gives Matt a chance to show he can still be considered an NHLer (or maybe the opposite will happen, but let’s err on the side of optimism). This is probably the best chance Benning will have with the Leafs to prove his value and while it’s unlikely he’ll still be a Leaf after the return of Tanev, Carlo, Mermis, Rifai, etc., he can expose himself to other clubs in the process and make his case as a waiver wire or a trade that would benefit the Leafs by completely removing his contract from their cap hit. Because Benning is motivated to find work, the Leafs can make the most of a call-up.

Benning hasn’t played much for the Marlies yet this season. He has only skated in ten games, but has six assists in those games. He also missed some time this year due to injury, but has recently come back strong and the Leafs may want to favor the hot hand on the farm as well.