Zach Aston-Reese is just what the Maple Leafs have been missing in their bottom six

April 15, 2024

Zach Aston-Reese is living with his dog, Carl, in a Toronto hotel at the moment.

That’s life for a player on a professional tryout at training camp.

There’s a pretty good chance that Aston-Reese may soon be able to lock down more permanent digs in the city.

Though it’s still early in camp, it’s clear already that the 28-year-old possesses just the kind of skillset the Maple Leafs have been missing in their bottom six in recent years. And he’ll inevitably come at a reduced price after his first foray into unrestricted free agency this past summer left him without a contract.

“A lot of teams were not really willing to make any offers,” Aston-Reese said. “Or they had spots that were all full.”

It wasn’t until late August that Aston-Reese really started to wonder what was going on. Why wasn’t he signed?

The Leafs finally came calling with a PTO offer in the second week of September. Pierre Engvall’s foot injury had the team seeking out more experienced help up front, according to GM Kyle Dubas.

“He was just honest with me,” Aston-Reese said of his conversation with Dubas, “told me what he expected of me.”

Aston-Reese was told he would get an opportunity to earn a spot.

An undrafted forward who’s played the bulk of his career with the Penguins, Aston-Reese feels like his career has been full of this kind of uncertainty.

He circles back to the time he was expecting to return to the USHL when suddenly, after Ludwig Karlsson signed a contract with the Senators, a spot at Northeastern University opened up.

“I just have this mantra that if you do the work everything is going to fall into place,” Aston-Reese said. “So, just try not to worry about it too much.”

Aston-Reese still thinks about his senior year at Northeastern, when he led the NCAA with 31 goals and 63 points. It’s why he believes he can be more than just a defensively sound battering ram in the NHL. To put it simply, Aston-Reese thinks he can score more than he has to this point in his NHL career – 32 goals in 230 career games.

“Thinking back to early on in Pittsburgh,” Aston-Reese said, “I did have spurts (scoring goals) and then it seemed like once I got going I would always get hurt and then have to work my way back up.

“Just really frustrating.”

The numbers from back then hint at something: Over his first two NHL seasons, Aston-Reese scored 12 times in 59 NHL games.

(Charles LeClaire / USA Today)

His most frequent linemates in that stretch: Evgeni Malkin and Phil Kessel. So, there’s that. But Aston-Reese also buried a respectable nine goals in 45 games during the lockout-shortened 2021 season – a 16-goal pace.

He was disappointed to finish with only five goals in 69 games last year.

“Just the way that things worked out with the depth in Pittsburgh the last two years I’ve kinda had to take on the defensive role,” Aston-Reese said. “And I think sometimes you get in that mindset where you just don’t even think about offence at all. I know that’s kinda been an issue a little bit, especially last year. Five goals or four goals, whatever it was. That’s something I’m hoping to break out of here… I think it’s more of a mindset shift.”

Changing his mindset, that is, so that offence is at least part of the calculation. Aston-Reese makes a habit of being around the net. It’s not inconceivable to think he could get to double figures in the goals department, especially with the level of skill he’ll be surrounded by in Toronto.

With no team training program to follow this past offseason, Aston-Reese found his own personal trainer and skated regularly at the Prudential Center practice rink. (He hails from Staten Island.)

He can most certainly fill the kind of fourth-line energy role the Leafs have open right now. He’s already proved he can do that in the NHL. He knows full well what it’s like to crash and bang, mashing 231 hits last season. He also knows how to hang when he’s getting stuffed in the defensive zone shift after shift.

Aston-Reese isn’t bluffing about the defensive role he took on with the Penguins: He’s never had an offensive zone faceoff percentage in the NHL over 41 percent, and regularly faced elite competition in those minutes.

Despite that, Aston-Reese’s Penguins’ teams always came out ahead in both the goals and expected goals departments when he’s on the ice.

Season	GF%	xGF%	OZS%
2017-18	54.8	52.4	38.1
2018-19	61.9	53.7	40.5
2019-20	54.3	54.9	28.4
2020-21	58.6	52.0	33.2
2021-22	56.5	50.0	35.0

“He’s a very responsible player,” said Matt Murray, a teammate of Aston-Reese with the Penguins. “He does everything the right way. Never cheats on offence. Plays good defence. I think he’s just a really well-rounded player.”

If, or perhaps when, he earns a contract with the Leafs, there’s no doubt he’ll be among the forwards head coach Sheldon Keefe trusts to protect late leads. He can add even more value on the penalty kill, helping the Leafs replace the departed Ilya Mikheyev and Ondrej Kase.

“A lot of his game is not gonna really jump out to you unless you’re really watching closely for the detail and the structure that he plays with,” Keefe said.

The Leafs have lacked that kind of utility at the bottom of their lineup. Most of the recent crop of fourth liners could play no higher in the lineup and offered limited, if any, value on special teams.

Aston-Reese, on the other hand, feels a lot like the useful fourth liners who played for last year’s Stanley Cup finalists from Tampa and Colorado, widely useful types like Corey Perry, Andrew Cogliano, and Darren Helm.

His willingness to crash and bang would juice up the energy level on a new-look fourth line. Aston-Reese also has the defensive tools to fit right in with David Kampf-led groups. Maybe he can even move up and create space for John Tavares and William Nylander as he once did for Malkin and Kessel.

Aston-Reese started camp on a line with Kampf and could conceivably stay there even when Engvall returns.

His versatility should make him a frontrunner for one of the last available forward spots.

Aston-Reese is more experienced as a defensive, energy type than, say, Joey Anderson. He can bring the same physical oomph as Kyle Clifford and Wayne Simmonds, but with more pace and usefulness.

And he’s more malleable than either Denis Malgin or Nick Robertson.

In short, he shouldn’t have to live out of the hotel for much longer. He has found a quaint, unofficial dog park though for Carl.

“At the end of the day, it is what it is,” Aston-Reese said of his tryout. “It’s a business and I still have an opportunity to play in the NHL.”

(Top photo: Nick Turchiaro / USA Today)

Stats and research courtesy of Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey, PuckIQ, Hockey Reference, hockeyDB, and Cap Friendly

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