Tj Brodie's solid debut season with the Toronto Maple Leafs
How the 30-year-old defender has been everything Morgan Rielly ever dreamed of in a partner
When the Leafs signed TJ Brodie to a four year $20 million deal in the offseason it felt like a really good fit, though there was a narrative around him that suggested he was exponentially lifted up by his Norris-calibre partner in Mark Giordano. With the regular season now in the rearview, it’s safe to say Brodie’s debut season with the Leafs has gone about as well as anybody could have anticipated.
The only defenceman on the team to play in all 56 games for the Leafs this season, Brodie spent 80% of his 1033 5v5 minutes alongside Morgan Rielly. Brodie proved to be the perfect safety valve for Rielly, who has always been quite weak defensively and has never consistently played with a partner as good as Brodie.
Stylistically, the fit is nearly perfect as Brodie excels at shutting down offence with his quietly effective defensive game. The result has been a pairing that controlled 55% of the on-ice expected goal share and 62% of the actual goal share at 5v5. Despite some of the usual frustrating defensive lapses from Rielly, the pairing has been really effective.
How Brodie has been so effective is what I aim to lay out here, though. That is to say the remainder of this post will cover the process of Brodie’s game and how exactly it is that he’s produced the results he has.
Transition Defence
Brodie keeps a tight gap in transition, but he’s not as aggressive as guys like Jake Muzzin and Travis Dermott in terms of stepping up on guys in order to deny zone entries.
Brodie rarely hits anyone, for that matter, as he was given credit for just 28 hits at 5v5, which was the least by a good margin among the six regular Leaf defencemen. Instead, Brodie likes to smother opposing players by simply hovering over them at all times. He doesn’t like to put himself in positions where he could be caught overcommitting and beat for a dangerous chance, which is why you don’t see him stepping up and hitting guys too often. He’d rather angle puck carriers toward the outside until they’ve skated themselves into a corner.
Brodie rarely gets beat and he’s such a good skater that he’s often able to recover even when it looks like he might get burned. He also seemingly doesn’t panic regardless of location on the ice or game situation, including when facing Connor McDavid in stride.
There just aren’t many defenders as good as Brodie in 1v1 rush situations, which comes in handy quite often playing alongside Rielly.
Naturally, playing with Rielly also means facing a lot of odd-man rush situations when he gets caught on the wrong side of the puck when there’s no puck support. Fortunately for the Leafs, Brodie excels as much as one can in such a suboptimal situation. Brodie’s patient approach is most noticeable in these situations, which is a skill that endeared him to Leaf fans almost immediately. I can’t imagine there are many players that go Gator Mode™ and succeed at breaking up plays at the rate that he does. It seems like every game he waits out the puck carrier until they have no shot and then lays down in the passing lane to block the cross ice pass attempt.
At this point, every time I witness a new TJ Brodie Gator I’m yelling like the Leafs just won a playoff round. More often, Brodie is able to stop the play while staying on his skates using his stick, his feet and his strong anticipation skills. He’s very quick to jump into lanes when he recognizes a teammate is beat.
Those are the plays that stick in your mind. The situations where you think they’re about to be scored on, but Brodie saves the day at the last second. There’s even the rare treat of Brodie’s defence translating immediately into offence.
In order to be an elite defender, though, you have to consistently make the right decisions in situations where the wrong decision or even momentary indecision means a dangerous chance for the opposition. Brodie does that as he’s always trying to balance pushing the play with not putting himself in a vulnerable position. Brodie is able to quickly read plays coming at him and most often make the right decision about whether to attack the puck or to concede space and contain the puck carrier. Sometimes that means jumping up to break up plays in the neutral zone.
Sometimes it means just conceding the line and protecting the home plate area because one quick pass or chip means you’re beat.
Sometimes it just means providing support to your partner and scooping up the puck after he’s disrupted a play.
In-zone defence
Predictably, Brodie also excels at breaking plays up in the defensive zone and using all the aforementioned defensive skills to prevent chances occurring anywhere near his net.
Brodie’s ability to anticipate plays and quickly jump into lanes helps him break up the cycle, often making it look simple. So much of Brodie’s game is about puck support and this is another way it consistently results in his team getting the puck back. He’s also quite crafty in the way he’s able to scoop pucks off the boards. He’s constantly using his backhand and his feet to gain control of pucks in weird spots without losing stride, a skill I suspect he’s had to develop in order to be effective playing his off side.
Brodie’s defensive instincts allow him to scoop up loose pucks all over the defensive zone. If he’s not the one forcing the turnover, Brodie always seems to be the guy in the right position to recover the puck in the defensive zone.
Brodie routinely snuffs out passes in the defensive zone using the same skills that allow him to do so while defending the rush. He doesn’t try to run anybody over or get flustered trying to get the puck back immediately. Rather, Brodie relies on his positioning and plugs up lanes while using his stick and his feet to disrupt play.
Brodie is just a blanket around his net, swatting pucks away from the area where goals are most often scored.
Penalties
One of the more impressive aspects of Brodie’s game is his ability to shut down offence while rarely taking penalties. He’s taken just six minor penalties this season while drawing seven himself. Part of that is that he just doesn’t let himself get beat often enough to have to take desperate penalties. I think it also speaks to his calm demeanor on the ice. As I touched on earlier, he just doesn’t panic either and he’s very careful with his stick. Few players are able to lean so heavily on his stick to snuff out offence while very rarely getting into trouble with stick infractions. Just like the rest of his game, he’s very patient with his stick checks, keeping his stick in position and waiting for the perfect moment to attack the puck.
Puck moving ability
Though Brodie’s most prominent strengths revolve around defending without the puck, he’s not bad with the puck on his stick either. While Rielly is obviously the primary puck mover on the pairing, Brodie is more than capable of making passes up ice when he needs to.
Most often, Brodie relies on a short pass to a supporting forward in stride to get the puck headed in the right direction. He’s not afraid to make a potentially dangerous pass up the middle under pressure either and he’s good at it. He’s able to identify options quickly and doesn’t hesitate to make a play when he does.
Brodie sees the ice very well and he’s constantly aware of where his teammates are on the ice. This means that if he suddenly ends up with the puck, he’s already got a good idea of what his options look like. I’ve noticed Brodie likes to go back on the puck like he’s going to take his time before quickly zipping a breakout pass right past a layer or two of the defence.
Since he’s pretty much always the guy hanging back, he seems to end up with the puck on his stick during neutral zone regroups a lot. Brodie is capable of making some pretty slick passes, threading the needle of the neutral zone defence, but sometimes there’s just a wall at the line and your guys are flat footed. That means activating and jumping into support the forward you just passed the puck to who was immediately smothered.
The below clip is a good example of Brodie’s intelligence with the puck. He recognizes Ilya Mikheyev curling into the spot of the ice just vacated by the Oiler forward going off for a change and he wastes no time getting it to Mikheyev who predictably does not come close to scoring.
The defender’s agility also proves useful on puck retrievals as he’s able to use it to escape opposing forecheckers.
Or he’ll just as happily stand his ground
In-zone offence
Brodie once again lets Rielly do most of the heavy lifting in the offensive zone while he acts as more of a facilitator. The man does not shoot the puck very often, which is a part of his game I really admire.
Among the 84 defencemen who played over 1000 minutes this season, Brodie is tied with Vladislav Gavrikov of the Blue Jackets for the least shots on net in that time with 48. The team as a whole has obviously put a focus on letting their forwards do most of the shooting, which is a luxury they have due to the talent up front. When you’re usually on the ice with players like Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander you want to give them every opportunity to create offence themselves. Brodie has always been a low volume shooter and despite the team-level focus on avoiding constant point shots, he still shoots much less frequently than the other five regulars on the team. He’s content with simply moving the puck along to his more skilled forwards or even just getting the puck deep to facilitate the cycle.
While he’s not often aggressive in terms of trying to turn passes directly into goals, sometimes he puts on a show for the people.
Playoff match up
Heading into the playoffs, I don’t envision the Montreal Canadiens creating a lot of scoring chances with Brodie on the ice. Obviously he’s going to find himself defending a few odd-man rushes when his partner goes rogue, but the Canadiens struggle to penetrate the home plate area at the best of times. Brodie is content to keep shots to the outside and the Candiens seem to be generally be content taking those shots.
The caveat to that is that they were missing Brendan Gallagher for a large portion of the season who is by far their best player in terms of creating dangerous chances. Brodie and the rest of the Leaf defencemen are going to be seeing a lot of Gallagher at the net front and he makes those point shots a lot more dangerous. He’s got a nose for finding the puck around the net and I’m looking forward to watching those battles with Brodie and Muzzin.
Conclusion
Brodie is exactly what the Leafs have needed in a partner for Rielly for years. He’s been a near perfect fit and he’s the type of player who has a good chance at becoming a fan favourite for a couple of years, provided he doesn’t fall off with age. I’m down for three more years of Gator Mode™.
- data and visuals via Corey Sznajder, JFresh, evolving-hockey.com, hockeyviz.com
I love the idea of Brodie and Sandin partnering in the future. TJ could then not have to bale out his partner and participate in the play even more knowing Rasmus has his back