One of the big issues in the last near-decade of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey is that the Maple Leafs’ teams had an arduous time defending. While the Auston Matthews era is very rich in goals, packed with highlight-reel offensive plays night after night, the Maple Leafs have often found themselves trailing.
Fortunately, the Maple Leafs teams of the past were able to “out-score” their problems. That is, cover up with a band-aid the glaring defensive issues that plagued those teams. This year under new head coach Craig Berube, not only is the team playing a defensive-first system, but also the defence has been revamped. Part of the revamp includes “old comer” Jake McCabe and newcomer Chris Tanev.
In this article, we will examine McCabe and Tanev individually, taking a look at some of the advanced metrics, courtesy of Natural Stat Trick1, and why the McCabe-Tanev pair has been spectacular this year.
Jake “Caber” McCabe brings the boom
During the 2022–23 season, McCabe was acquired in addition to Sam Lafferty, a 2024 conditional fifth-round pick, and a 2025 conditional fifth-round pick from the Chicago Blackhawks for a Maple Leafs’ 2025 conditional first-round pick, a 2026 second-round pick, Joey Anderson, and Pavel Gogolev. The Blackhawks also retained $2M for each of the remaining two years on McCabe’s contract.
While McCabe had a career-high of eight goals and 20 assistsd for 28 points last season, McCabe is not known for his offence. Rather, McCabe brings physicality and a stay-at-home element that the high-octane offensive Maple Leafs teams sorely lacked.
At 5v5 this season, McCabe is sixth on the team in hits with 80. When looking at the 5v5 data for defencemen that have played 500 minutes or more this season, McCabe is tied for 22nd with Colton Parayko. It should be noted that McCabe has missed nine games so far this season with an injury. Last season he was seventh among all defencemen in hits with 188 at 5v5.
Table 1. Table showing Jake McCabe’s ranking in various advanced metrics for defencemen that have played 500 or more minutes 5v5 or 100 or more minutes on the penalty kill
| Situation | Corsi Against | Fenwick Against | Shots Against | Goals Against | Expected Goals Against | High-Danger Scoring Chances Against | High-Danger Goals Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5v5 | 76 | 68 | 62 | T-63 | 58 | T-36 | T-48 |
| Penalty Kill | 21 | 14 | 24 | T-10 | 17 | T-10 | T-3 |
As we can see in Table 1, the advanced metrics are positive for McCabe and show what he excels at: shot suppression. Out of the 180 defencemen who have played more than 500 minutes 5v5, McCabe ranks decent in Corsi against, Fenwick against, shots against, goals against, expected goals against, high-danger scoring chances against, and high-danger goals against.
Out of the 68 defencemen who have played more than 100 minutes on the penalty kill, McCabe’s advanced metrics improve. Notably, he ranks third in high-danger goals against, and tied for 10th in goals against and high-danger scoring chances against.
McCabe was part of what was probably the biggest NHL Trade Deadline by the Toronto Maple Leafs in recent history. Having the Blackhawks retain $2M on McCabe’s contract (cap hit for the Maple Leafs was $2M) for the last two years was insane value for what he provides. Even McCabe’s recent contract extension of five years at $4.51M AAV that kicks in next year is not bad considering the salary cap is set to increase to 113.5M by the 2026–27 season.
The newcomer: Chris Tanev
The big free agent addition by Brad Treliving last offseason was signing Chris Tanev to a six-year, $4.5M AAV deal. Like McCabe, Tanev is not known for his offensive prowess, with one goal and 13 assists for 14 points so far this season, but rather he is known for his defensive game.
While he does not hit like McCabe, Tanev is known to absorb pucks like Kirby. Tanev leads all skaters on the team with 99 blocks. When looking at the 5v5 data for defencemen who have played 500 minutes or more this season, Tanev is tied for fourth with Colton Parayko in blocked shots. On the penalty kill, Tanev is tied for first with 36 blocked shots.
Table 2. Table showing Chris Tanev’s ranking in various advanced metrics for defencemen that have played 500 or more minutes 5v5 or 100 or more minutes on the penalty kill
| Situation | Corsi Against | Fenwick Against | Shots Against | Goals Against | Expected Goals Against | High-Danger Scoring Chances Against | High-Danger Goals Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5v5 | 107 | 78 | T-64 | T-42 | 62 | T-42 | T-33 |
| Penalty Kill | T-49 | 39 | 41 | T-32 | 35 | T-27 | T-41 |
Like McCabe, Tanev excels at shot suppression. Out of the 180 defencemen who have played more than 500 minutes 5v5, Tanev ranks decently in Corsi against, Fenwick against, shots against, goals against, expected goals against, high-danger goals against, and higher danger-scoring chances against.
For the penalty kill, however, Tanev ranks generally higher. This is likely due to Tanev’s playstyle in that he forces plays to the outside. So while teams may get shots off on the power play, they’re generally lower quality (higher Corsi and Fenwick against) as compared to higher-danger chances where he ranks more favourably.
The McCabe-Tanev pairing is elite
The real magic is the combination effect of McCabe and Tanev as a pairing. Spoiler: they’re an absolute unit together.
Table 32. Table showing the ranking of the Jake McCabe-Chris Tanev pairing in various advanced metrics for defence pairings that have played 400 or more minutes 5v5 or 80 or more minutes on the penalty kill
| Situation | Corsi Against | Fenwick Against | Shots Against | Goals Against | Expected Goals Against | High-danger Scoring Chances Against | High-Danger Goals Against |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5v5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | T-6 | 1 | 3 | Not available |
| Penalty Kill | T-6 | 2 | 5 | T-2 | 2 | 1 | Not available |
As we can see in Table 3, the McCabe-Tanev pairing is absolutely elite this season ranking near the top in every advanced metric, notably first in shots against and expected goals against, and third in Fenwick Against and high-danger scoring chances against at 5v5.
On the penalty kill, some of the advanced metrics get even better. McCabe-Tanev improve to first in higher-danger scoring chances against and tied for second in goals against, and second in Fenwick against and expected goals against.
The McCabe-Tanev pairing will be interesting to see come playoffs
At the beginning of the year, Tanev was thought to be Morgan Rielly’s long-awaited right-handed defence partner. Rielly hasn’t had a stable defence partner throughout his whole career, except maybe Ron Hainsey.
However, the combination of McCabe on the left and Tanev on the right side has been absolutely astounding this season. When was the last time the Maple Leafs had such a consistent and effective defensive pair? This will likely be the pair that will be tasked with shutting down the opposition’s top-scoring lines come playoffs.
Whether the regular season success of the McCabe-Tanev pairing will translate to the playoffs remains to be seen. But let’s hope that, unlike the scoring, this defensive pairing will be an absolute rock come playoffs.
- Note that the statistics presented were taken from the raw data provided by Natural Stat Trick, sorted in ascending order, and the rank was taken. ↩︎
- Note that according to Natural Stat Trick, McCabe-Tanev has played 416:05 5v5 and 88:22 on the penalty kill so far this season. Hence the difference in time played as compared to the previous tables. ↩︎
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