Stempniak and Coyotes a Match Made in Heaven

For a hockey player, Lee Stempniak is quite the polarizing figure.

Among Maple Leafs fans, he’s considered a choker who couldn’t cope with the media scrutiny of one of the NHL’s top markets in Toronto. Among Leafs haters, however, he serves as proof that Hogtown will never breed a winner in the league’s modern era.

Stempniak, whose apparent prayers were answered with a trade-deadline deal to the Phoenix Coyotes last year following a mediocre three-quarters of a season with the Leafs, began to take advantage of his clean slate almost immediately upon arriving in the desert. He scored a goal with the ‘Yotes in his first game in his new uniform and all of a sudden all the pressure that had built up on his shoulders over the course of his 30-points-in-62-game performance with the Leafs began to ease. Whether or not the trade was heaven-sent or comprised just one side of a Faustian deal remains to be seen. If he ever gets traded back to Toronto, we’ll know for sure.

That alleviated pressure, though, was clearly the first sign of a dam set to burst as, when the regular season was all said and done, he had amassed 14 goals and four assists in his 18 games as a Coyote, effectively offsetting any drought that may have been victimizing Arizona upon his arrival. So impressive was his scoring spree that the meagre two assists he managed in seven subsequent playoffs games can certainly be forgiven.

What is most incredible about Stempniak’s story is that he scored the exact same amount of goals in his 62 games in Toronto, and of course that the goal-per-game pace he set in Phoenix would have amounted to 64 goals over an entire season. So, the whole situation leads to at least one unavoidable question: were the Coyotes that good, or the Leafs that bad?

While the Coyotes were that good, earning 107 points last season to finish fourth in the tougher Western Conference, and the Leafs, the second-worst team in the league with 74 points, were that horrible, it isn’t that simple. One cannot simply be asked that question, laugh loudly, and answer: “Yes, the Leafs sucked so hard last season that a player who was able to score 14 goals in 18 games on one team could only score 14 in 62 with the Leafs.” It should be noted that answer, however wrong, will most typically be followed by another, louder laugh... and maybe some finger-pointing action if the other person is an actual Leafs fan.

No, even though the Leafs do suck right now - and have for the better part of the last few decades - Stempniak’s success in Phoenix is not especially indicative of anything having to do with the Leafs. For every Stempniak to leave Toronto, there is an Alexei Ponikarovsky. Ponikarovaky managed 19 goals and 41 points and in 61 games with the Leafs and just two goals and nine points in 16 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins after being traded himself and finding himself lower on Pittsburgh’s depth chart. There’s also an Ian White who kept up much the same pace after being dealt to Calgary, notching 26 points in 56 games as a Leaf and 12 in 27 as a Flame.

So, clearly there’s little trend if any to be witnessed by these three examples. Sure, Stempniak’s increase in production was by far the most dramatic change witnessed in any of the three or in any player for that matter since Rob Brown had the crazy idea to up and get traded from the Pens to the Hartford Whalers, no longer having Mario Lemieux to play with and feed him the puck. Still, one must not disregard that the Coyotes last year lacked a Super Mario of their very own, unless you count Matthew “Not Vince” Lombardi... but why would you?

Really, Stempniak held his coming-out party without any A-list superstar talent to lend him a helping hand, something that is true of most of last year’s Coyotes. An orphaned team, they surpassed all expectations by making the playoffs and giving the Detroit Red Wings all they could handle during their first-round, seven-game series that the Wings ultimately won.

As such, there are really only two conclusions that can be taken away from this whole Stempniak situation:

1) The Coyotes have the makings of a solid, cohesive unit that could go very deep in the playoffs this season.
2) The Leafs will likely never win another Cup.

And, perhaps, a third and fourth: that Stempniak and the Coyotes are a good fit and Stempniak re-signing with the team on Monday for reportedly $1.75 million per year for two seasons is a deal that should benefit both sides.