Advertisement

Alexander Kerfoot earning respect with career year

Not many Maple Leafs fans were happy when Alex Kerfoot stayed in Toronto and Jared McCann never made through the door but Kerfoot is proving doubters wrong this season, playing his 300th NHL game and on track for a career high in points.

On the latest episode of 'In the Mentions', Omar addresses the use of the 'juggernaut' word, assesses Jack Campbell's Vezina credentials, and explains why he's all in on the Leafs this season.

Subscribe to Yahoo Sports NHL on YouTube for the latest episodes of 'In the Mentions'.

Video Transcript

OMAR: Alexander Kerfoot, which I, in the past, referred to him as, that person that we kept so we didn't have Jared McCann anymore. Do you remember that? Remember that whole thing with the expansion draft? We traded for Jared McCann. We looked at his highlights and said, oh, my God, Jared McCann would be sick. And then we lost him to keep Kerfoot.

And at first it was very frustrating, especially considering how good of a start Jared McCann was having, and the team isn't as good right now. Right? But Kerfoot has had a very sneaky good season, to the point where he's actually on a career high. After playing his 300th NHL game, he's actually now on pace for 46 points.

The thing that stands out the most about Alex Kerfoot is his speed, both offensively and defensively. He really uses it to get himself in these really great positions. And we kind of see him when he takes off along the boards, gets past defenders, is first on the forecheck, even on the penalty kill. He's had a lot of shorthanded breakaways. Now, he hasn't scored on all of them, but it's still been a really good and effective use of his speed on the ice.

And then, of course, he's just a regular nice guy. You know, he hooked up William Nylander with that empty net goal the other day. He didn't have to. He completely had that on his own. But he realized he already had a goal, might as well hook up his linemate with one, as well.

So with Alex Kerfoot playing the way that he's playing, it really makes you think about some of the possible moves the Leafs have to do come trade deadline. Do they really need to upgrade the top six on the left-hand side? Or can we be comfortable with Alex Kerfoot once the playoffs starts? I think, based off of everything that we've seen so far from him, I think there's actually a lot of evidence that shows that, hey, maybe Alex Kerfoot might be the one to go with.