TORONTO -- Auston Matthews has never consistently killed penalties since entering the NHL in 2016-17 but the Toronto Maple Leafs are going to see if the center can grow into the role throughout training camp.
"You're down a man but at the same time, it's hockey, a lot of anticipation, a lot of reads and I feel like I have a good stick and can break up plays," Matthews said. "I'd love to be utilized on it."
So why turn to Matthews now, to help in an area of the game he has rarely played in at the NHL level or even prior reaching the NHL?
"Auston can do anything you ask him to do, anything he puts his mind to," Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. "He's embraced it in the early going and we will continue with it through preseason."
More pragmatically, the Maple Leafs have minutes to fill on the penalty kill this season after losing forwards Noel Acciari, Alexander Kerfoot, Ryan O'Reilly and Zach Aston-Reese this offseason, all of whom were turned to last season while short-handed.
"There's a need and a void perhaps is the best way to describe it," Keefe said. "This will be a longer look for him just to get comfortable and familiar with it. … Ideally for me, Auston is comfortable to take penalty-kill reps, same with Willy (Nylander) who has killed more than Auston over the last couple of seasons and will take a bigger step this year as well, but also have others step up so depending on what the game is calling for, we can utilize different people in different situations."
Despite playing just 3:29 short-handed in total in 74 games last season, Matthews led all Toronto forwards in blocked shots with 92, twice as many as Kerfoot (46), who was second among Maple Leafs forwards; he ranked third on the team in takeaways (68).
Matthews, who has played 24:19 short-handed in his seven NHL seasons, said seeing offensively proficient players killing penalties can affect how a power play approaches the game because of the risk of giving up a chance if a power play gets too careless.
"I've always thought of it too when you go out against guys like Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand on the penalty kill, it definitely makes you think a little bit more maybe just because not only are they very good defensively, they can knock pucks out of the air and force you to make plays in tough positions and then transition the other way," Matthews said. "Obviously you're not trying to score every time you are out there but there's definitely a lot of opportunity there and something I definitely want to embrace."
Matthews, who scored 40 goals last season, has 299 goals in 481 career NHL games and has not scored fewer than 34 in any season.
Defenseman Mark Giordano, who averaged 2:17 short-handed per game last season in 78 games, said he sees the potential for Matthews to put his offensive ability on display while short-handed.
"That's the direction our league is going in," Giordano said. "A lot of teams are attacking on the penalty kill and you see it on a lot of teams, they're putting their best players out there for a reason. There's four forwards on the ice on the other side so you can attack a little bit more and maybe use that to your advantage. I think [Matthews would] be great. You look at our forwards last year, he led our forwards in blocked shots, he's really good defensively, it makes sense for sure."
The Maple Leafs also experimented on the power play during training camp on Saturday replacing Morgan Rielly with John Klingberg, who signed a one-year, $4.15 million contract with Toronto as an unrestricted free agent during the off season, on the top power play unit that also included Matthews, Nylander, Mitchell Marner and John Tavares.
Toronto was second in the NHL last season on the power play (26 percent). Since entering the NHL in 2014-15, Klingberg has been proficient on the power play ranking 11th in points among defensemen (158). Rielly ranks 16th in that span (127 points).
"We know very well what it looks like with Morgan there," Keefe said. "We have a huge sample of that and it's something we can go to at any time. We feel very comfortable with it but we don't know what it looks like with Klingberg. There's some different dynamics there, he's a right shot which is probably the biggest change but Klingberg has had lots of success in that position over his career so we just want to use this as an opportunity to help Klingberg get comfortable and there's no better way to do that than to be with our best people and then also get a good sample of what it looks like with him in that position... It's important to have options."
