TJ Brodie Earning High Praise On Leafs Blueline

You might not notice TJ Brodie on the Toronto Maple Leafs blueline, but that’s just the way everyone wants it.

In fact, a recent article by The Hockey Writers stated, “Maple Leafs’ T.J. Brodie Is So Good No One Seems to Notice Him.”

In other words, he’s given the blood hungry Toronto media nothing to complain about.

In fact, Brodie has earned high praise from media, and from teammates, including his Toronto Maple Leafs partner Morgan Reilly. Coupling Brodie with Reilly appears to have solved a multi-season issue of finding an appropriate partner for the talented long-time Leaf Reilly.

As The Athletic’s Jonas Siegal, in an article titled “T.J. Brodie is giving the Maple Leafs all that they hoped for and more” put it, “Brodie has been everything next to Rielly that Nikita Zaitsev, Cody Ceci, Tyson Barrie and Ron Hainsey were not.

Brodie has not set the ice on fire offensively this season compiling no goals, and only 10 assists in 29 games, but as Justin Bourne of Sportsnet.ca said, Brodie is doing everything else.

“TJ Brodie plays the second most, he’s faced the toughest competition of the group, he’s the only one of the D-corps playing consequential minutes on both special teams (he’s at about a minute per game of PP time and is over two minutes of PK time per game), and more than anything, he’s been a steadying force for a blue line dying for one compared to seasons past. Plays don’t die on Brodie’s stick, The Big Mistake has been rare and he’s turned their top-4 into a proper top-4.”

CBS Sports said that Brodie is “stabilizing a once-fragile Toronto blue line.”

And it appears so.

Quietly, Dresden’s TJ Brodie is making a huge impact on the Toronto Maple Leafs blueline…a position that has been the team’s achilles heel in recent seasons in their aims to become a true Stanley Cup contender.