Opinion: The Leafs have 25% of the NHL's toughest players

When Toronto Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas acquired star forward Ryan O'Reilly from the St. Louis Blues earlier this month, he knew what he was getting: A hardworking, valuable two-way forward with high-end offensive ability. In short, he received one of the most reliable centermen in the entire NHL. What Dubas probably didn't realize is that he also acquired a 25% total of the NHL's remaining 'visor-less' players.

That's right, O'Reilly pre-dates the NHL's grandfather clause regarding visors and has played the entirety of his NHL career without a windshield on his face. He joins Jordie Benn on the Leafs as the other player to go visor-less, while tough guy Wayne Simmonds seemingly goes back and forth on whether or not he wears it. With O'Reilly and Benn though, the Leafs have two of the NHL's remaining 8 visor-less players. The others are: Jamie Benn, Zack Kassian, Milan Lucic, Matt Martin,  Ryan Reaves, Zach Bogosian.

You'll notice that most of those guys are either scrappers or depth players. Jamie Benn and O'Reilly are really the two who stand out as being impact players at this point in their careers. So... with the Leafs having two of these guys, are they now the toughest team in the league by sheer volume of guts? Nah... not even close. In fact, I'd argue that maybe they have the dumbest team in the league by using the same metric. I've played hockey my whole adult life and I ditched the visor/cage as soon as my minor hockey days were over. I played without a visor for well over a decade, but at a certain point you realize that having the peace of mind that you won't lose an eyeball because some idiots goes into the corner with his stick up is worth any kind of ribbing that you may have to endure.

Not wearing a visor isn't tough, it's just dumb in this day and age. I'll give a pass to the fighters who don't wear one though, since they can't legally remove their helmets for a fight anymore. Adding a visor is just inviting their opponent to get injured and I think there's real honor there in these guys going visor-less. O'Reilly though? Just put the windshield on bro... no one cares anymore.