The Toronto Maple Leafs locked up Colton Sissons on July 1, inking him to a two-year deal with an AAV of $4.25 million, an amount just north of last season’s average NHL salary. Sissons, who is 32 and turns 33 in November, joins the Leafs as a center/right wing, standing at 6’1″ and weighing 201 lbs. He was a 50th overall draft pick back in 2012, and now he is officially part of the blue and white.
A Changing Role For The Veteran
Sissons spent his entire career in Nashville until last year, where he saw a pretty significant role reduction in Vegas. Think about it: he went from consistently logging third-line minutes and being the sixth-most used forward on the Predators, to playing under 13 minutes per game as the eleventh-most used forward on a deeper Vegas squad. That’s a serious dip in opportunity, right? He still plays both special teams, though the source says he is used more on the penalty kill than the power play.
Breaking Down The Advanced Stats
When you dig into the advanced numbers, a clearer picture of Sissons’ game emerges. Moneypuck shows him with 0.64 Expected Goals per 60 minutes last season, and he scored seven goals on ten expected. But here is where it gets interesting: Moneypuck pegs his individual shooting talent at 7-8 percent *below* average over the last couple of years, after a career of mostly average ability. He is not exactly a shot machine, with a low shot rate of 8.6 Individual Corsi per 60 minutes for his career. This means he picks his moments, and the graph above shows he gets a high Expected Goals per 60 minutes because he mostly shoots from right in front of the net.
Evolving Hockey’s RAPM model sees him as a plausible PP2 guy if needed, but his primary value is squarely in his impacts on shot differential at both ends of the ice, as well as the quality of shots against. HockeyViz backs this up, painting him as a career third-liner with mostly defensive skills, though they do note a recent decline in value. His defence value consistently looks greater than his offence, even if he has had two years of scoring below expected by that model. Oh, and he is a beast in the dot, with a 54% career faceoff record as a regular center. He blocks a lot of shots and does not give the puck away much, which really indicates he is not a puck-handling forward.
So, what does it all mean for the Maple Leafs? The first preseason games are kicking off this weekend, and all eyes will be on Sissons. Fans will be eager to see how that defensive prowess, that 54% faceoff record, and his shot-blocking ability translate into his new role. Can he solidify a bottom-six spot and provide that crucial defensive bite for Toronto? We are about to find out.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Pension Plan Puppets.
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