Maple Leafs' Nicolas Roy stat paints Craig Berube in negative light originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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Toronto Maple Leafs fans who can stomach watching the NHL playoffs are probably wondering where this Colorado Avalanche version of Nicolas Roy was when he was in Toronto.
The answer is that he was probably in the defensive zone.
It's a social media discussion ongoing among Leafs fans at the moment, and the stats are pretty jarring.
Roy got, by far, the fewest amount of offensive zone shift starts of his career this season.
Clearly, Roy has offensive talent, but Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube used him elsewhere:
Roy had the lowest Offensive Zone Start % of his career with the Leafs. Berube has no idea how to properly deploy any player.#BerubeOUThttps://t.co/tsu3Crw8ZIpic.twitter.com/ZuITNPqQYa
— Liam (@Willy4Hart) May 12, 2026
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It's worth acknowledging that yes, to some extent, the zone a player starts in depends a lot on how a whole team's lineup shakes out. If he's a gifted offensive player but also a better defender than a couple of the other centers, than maybe that would explain things.
But it's still pretty drastic to see that chart and see how Roy's Toronto usage has no alignment with the rest of his career.
Maybe there was a part of Berube that felt he was onto something, but in the end, it didn't work out, and Roy was quickly shipped back out of town.
Now, as if Maple Leafs fans aren't annoyed enough about missing the playoffs, they've got to watch Roy do a bunch of good things for the powerful Avalanche. That's probably not a particularly enjoyable experience.