Cody Ceci was born in Ottawa, played the bulk of his OHL career for the hometown 67’s, was drafted by the Senators and spent the first six seasons of his NHL career there.
Ottawa, in other words, was all Ceci really knew.
Like it has for so many others in the Maple Leafs dressing room this fall, Toronto has been an adjustment.
“It’s always tough when you switch teams and everything’s new and you have to pick up where you’ve been living for the last few years,” said Ceci, who swapped spots with Nikita Zaitsev in a summertime trade that freed the Leafs of Zaitsev’s long-term deal. “Leaving Ottawa was a bit more different because I’m from there. But I really enjoy the guys here, really enjoy the city.”
Then, he added: “It’s great to have a chance to play with these guys. We’re always in every game and our guys can score, so it helps out.”
Ceci went through some tumultuous times with the Senators. He was overly burdened from a young age on some rough hockey clubs that weren’t in every game and often couldn’t score. What seemed interesting then on the day he officially landed with the Leafs — July 1, the same busy day that saw Nazem Kadri dealt to Colorado for Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot — was the inference from GM Kyle Dubas that Ceci would “probably play a little bit of a different role here.”
Seventeen games into the season and that hasn’t proved to be the case.
Cody Ceci is averaging over 22 minutes for the Leafs this season. (Dan Hamilton / USA Today)
Former Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf was probably the most frequent of the bunch.
“Before that, maybe Phillips?” Ceci said, referring to Senators defensive legend Chris Phillips. “He was great. He was setting the games-played record for Ottawa. So, he had been there a long time and I was brand new.”
Seventeen games into the season and it’s still not clear (unsurprisingly) what the Leafs have in Ceci. A temporary stopgap where one was needed on right defence? A salvageable piece for the future — one who turns only 26 in December? A miscast part that needs to be replaced and moved down in the lineup?
What we can say is, so far at least, the Leafs are sort of making it work with the 25-year-old.
He’s had his bumpy moments — like late last month in Montreal when Brendan Gallagher slithered around him to score a goal for the Habs, or Thursday night, when he inadvertently shoveled a rebound right to Max Pacioretty, who scored the Golden Knights’ first goal.
Generally though, wiping away the reputation from Ottawa, and any preconceived notions that went with it, it’s hard to conclude that hasn’t gone OK so far for Ceci with the Leafs.
The longtime dark cloud of the analytics world is sitting right around 52 percent in the expected goals department, a far cry from some of those turbulent years in Ottawa. The connection with Rielly hasn’t been perfect, to be expected with any new partnership, but by the numbers the two are performing about as well as the Rielly-Ron Hainsey combo of last season. Not fantastic. But not bad either.
Can Mike Babcock depend on Ceci, a former first-round pick, to check David Pastrnak, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in a playoff series — and do it well? Can Ceci handle that grind for four rounds if the Leafs can get that far? Does Ceci process the game fast enough to do it? Or do the Leafs need to find an alternative solution sometime before then? Make another trade, a big one maybe, to finally solve the question mark on the right side of their top pair?
Or, do they need to hand off the most challenging assignments to a different group, just as they did last spring when Jake Muzzin and Nikita Zaitsev took over at playoff time?
Against Vegas, in a 2-1 Leafs win, it was Muzzin and Tyson Barrie checking the Knights top line of Pacioretty, Mark Stone and Paul Stastny — though Babcock might argue that the William Karlsson-led second unit is pretty potent, too.
Dubas’ remark notwithstanding, Ceci said he knew coming into his first season in Toronto that his role would include more of those top lines and a whole bunch of penalty killing. He’s gotten first-unit duty there, too, in tandem with Muzzin and fared, well, OK — ranking third among the Leafs’ primary four defenders in expected goals against per 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Leafs have outscored foes 15-12 five-on-five when Ceci has been on the ice.
The jury is still very much in doubt whether Ceci will fit in, or flip out for the Maple Leafs, but one thing is sure, Martin Marincin isn't about to take his job. Now Rasmus Sandin, that's another matter.
Stay tuned.
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