Toronto Maple Leafs defender Roman Polak hasn’t enjoyed any increased success operating under the Mike Babcock led regime like other defenders have.

Polak has appeared in five of the seven Toronto Maple Leafs games this season and is tied for the lead in 5-on-5 goals against. Based simply off the two less games that’s not very impressive, but when you take into account that he’s ranked 5th (out of seven) for average 5v5 TOI it’s even worse.

He’s been on the ice for the 2nd most high danger scoring chances against, the worst (by a lot) relative scoring chances for percentage with -18.33%, the worst shot attempts for relative at -14.01% and a 16.67 goals for percentage.

As far as his physical presence out on the ice, well, it’s not really there. He has two more hits than Jake Gardiner, who has also suited up for five games this year for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

There isn’t much to enjoy about Roman Polak’s game this year, and that basically echoes last season’s performance as well.

The desired option would be to unload Polak and his $2.75M salary on someone else. Unfortunately, for the reasons listed above, that’s near impossible, which gives the Toronto Maple Leafs three options.

1) Healthy Scratch: It’s not hard to, at the very least, match Polak’s contributions to the team right now, so a call-up of anyone (or inserting Corrado after his conditioning stint) would be a better option. In this scenario he’s still around as a positive veteran voice if that interests anyone.

2) Demote To AHL: Even the on-ice portion of hockey is a business, and that business is called winning. The Toronot Maple Leafs have a better chance at winning if Roman Polak isn’t in the lineup. Is it hard to tell a veteran to go to the AHL? I’d assume yes, because of the respect factor, etc., but this is about giving yourself the best chance to win. He’ll clear waivers, trust me.

3) Continue To Play Him: Doing this makes no sense to me unless the entire organizations available defenders in the AHL, ECHL, the moon, or wherever, are injured.

Is it very early in the season? Absolutely. Does Polak’s track record of being an effective contributor lead anyone to believe he’s about to turn on the jets and wow the hockey world? Not to me it doesn’t.

Everyone is prepared for pain, I get that, but there’s a difference between pain and torture. I didn’t sign up for the latter. The Toronto Maple Leafs have to get over Roman Polak’s perceived contributions and look at what he’s actually doing for the team when he’s on the ice.