The Toronto Maple Leafs need Tyler Bertuzzi to more productive – and fast

When Tyler Bertuzzi signed a one-year, $5.5 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 2, it looked like a win-win for both sides.

Bertuzzi needed a chance to bounce back after a difficult 2022-23 season. He had 30 points in 50 games between Detroit and Boston last season after dealing with multiple hand injuries. After he scored a career-best 62 points in 2021-22, Bertuzzi and the Leafs were hoping to see him bounce back and be healthy this season.

Health-wise? All’s good. Performance-wise? The opposite.

Bertuzzi enters Wednesday’s meeting with the Arizona Coyotes with 22 points in 53 games. Previously a 30-goal scorer, Bertuzzi is on pace for just 11 this year – the lowest he’s had in any season with at least 50 games played.

His struggles have been well-documented, and his $5.5 million cap hit makes him very, very difficult to trade. So that’s not an option. Getting him back on track is. Coach Sheldon Keefe finally put Bertuzzi on the power play against Anaheim, scoring one of Toronto’s nine goals in a blowout victory.

Great. That’s good to see. But with two goals in his past 32 games, there hasn’t been much celebrating from No. 59.

Bertuzzi has spent most of the season on Toronto’s second line with John Tavares and William Nylander. Tavares has had his own struggles this season, but he’s still on pace for 63 points. Nylander, meanwhile, is expected to crush the 100-point barrier for the first time in his career – making Bertuzzi’s numbers look dire in comparison.

Coach Sheldon Keefe recently mentioned that he liked a lot of the smaller things Bertuzzi has done well on Toronto’s second line that just hasn’t paid off on the scoresheet. But with his salary, and for his role on the team, he needs to start finding ways to produce. The team has no cap space to bring in a goal-scorer at the deadline, so they need their own talent to pick up the pace.

Goals are goals, and you’ll take them any way you can. But isn’t it at least a little concerning that Bertuzzi’s only goal against a team currently in a playoff spot came Oct. 26 against Dallas? That’s the type of performance that sends guys to the press box. If Bertuzzi doesn’t produce much on the first power-play unit moving forward, it might be worth giving him a break for a night to just let him recharge. The biggest issue? Finding a proper replacement for him in the lineup, even for a game, and Toronto’s depth is… lacking. That’s why Bertuzzi was brought in.

At the bare minimum, the careless penalties need to stop and the defensive mistakes need to be eradicated. Bertuzzi needs to do what he’s paid to do.

As a net-front presence, Bertuzzi is still valuable. No matter who he plays with, he’s a distraction to allow his linemates to create chances. That doesn’t go unnoticed by any means – you need guys like him creating havoc around the crease, especially when the alternative is having your star players shut down completely.

It’s not like Bertuzzi has lacked opportunities. Has Bertuzzi been snakebitten? For sure. MoneyPuck has him with a -8.9 goals above expected – sitting second last behind Tavares’ 13.8 on Toronto. His shooting percentage of 6.9 is almost 10 percentage points below his 30-goal season. When fully healthy, he has shown himself capable of scoring on at least 16 percent of his shots, with a career average of 14.5. So, yeah, it’s been difficult to overcome that.

But over the first two months of the season, Bertuzzi had a 1.37 points-per-60 rate. Since Dec. 1, he’s at 1.5 – placing him ninth on the Leafs. He was outside the top 10 in shots-per-60 in both time frames, and he hasn’t scored an even-strength goal in 56 days.

Physically, Bertuzzi is averaging 1.2 hits per game. At his current pace, he should break the 80-hit mark for the first time in his career. It’s not a huge total, but it adds another element to his game, and he’s not afraid to get under an opponent’s skin. That’s good, at least.

Nobody is asking him to produce like the Core Four. But he was brought in to bring secondary scoring and simply hasn’t done that. Bobby McMann has done a better job of that with eight goals while averaging 9:39 in ice time in 23 fewer games. Sure, six of them have come in the past four games, but he’s doing what the Leafs need from Big Bert.

More power-play time should help Bertuzzi, just like it did during his time in Boston. But at 5-on-5, Bertuzzi needs to be so much better. He was an essential part of Detroit’s scoring push a few years back – more so than he needs to be in Toronto. Bertuzzi is playing with quality linemates, and he’s still averaging significant ice time, but the scoring chances are coming elsewhere instead of from Bertuzzi’s stick. So that plays a part in it, but this doesn’t feel like the same guy that emerged as one of the top trade targets last season.

Many fans think his game is more suited for playoff hockey, but hoping his production will magically improve in two months is asking a lot here – especially with one playoff series to his credit over his entire NHL career. Are his struggles confidence-related? Perhaps. Playing in Toronto is a whole other ball game, even if you have experience in other Original Six markets.

Bertuzzi’s forechecking and grit around the net have been valuable for the Leafs. But he needs to start producing. Period.