Before we jump into our Maple Leafs player ratings for October, a caveat is in order.
Player ratings are highly subjective. How tough a grader are you in general? What separates an A- from a B+? And how much should a player’s performance be judged against their role vs. expectations entering the season, however high or low and sometimes biased those might be?
Some ground rules help, even if mileage will vary. Our ratings below dispense with letter grades and try to balance reasonable expectations for each player’s specific role with what we expected from the individual entering the season.