It’s after practice earlier this month and Wayne Simmonds is wholeheartedly chucking pucks on net.
The 34-year-old is engaged in a game of rebound with his teammates.
Simmonds won’t play the next night when the Maple Leafs host the Blues, nor two nights later when the team hosts the Kraken or even two nights after that in yet another home game against the Red Wings.
His appearance this past Sunday against the Flyers was his first for the Leafs in nearly a month — and last, potentially, in the place where he enjoyed his best years as an NHL player.
Simmonds, who had never been a healthy scratch in the NHL until last season, has played in only eight games all season.
He’ll be scratched for the 30th time this season when the Leafs host the Predators on Wednesday night.
Although he would like to play more, Simmonds is not bitter about his current situation. He remains a member of his hometown team, where he can take part in the chase for an elusive Stanley Cup (personally and for the franchise). He still gets to enjoy the camaraderie of his teammates too, including those post-practice games of rebound.
“That’s the whole point right,” Simmonds told me recently. “You want to stay in it as long as you can.”
Added Simmonds of his limited on-ice role: “Hey, I’m in the NHL. I’m still living my dream. I got no complaints here.”
Wayne Simmonds. (Rick Osentoski/USA Today)
And yet, life in the NHL for Simmonds today is clearly different, drastically so, from what it had been in his previous 14 seasons.
Simmonds is almost always an extra forward at practice these days, wearing the gray jersey designated for players who won’t suit up in the next game. After morning skates, he’ll endure conditioning skates with other scratches and/or skill work with an assistant coach or member of the Leafs’ development team.
He’ll watch games in a suit from the press box.
Simmonds says he would love to play more often, “But we’re playing well. I’m a team guy, a team player, and this is the situation it is right now so that’s what it is.”
“I’m here, I’m gonna work no matter what regardless if I’m playing or not,” Simmonds added.
Simmonds didn’t make the Leafs out of camp. He cleared waivers and was assigned to the Marlies, but opted not to play, for what would have been the first time, in the AHL. He chose to wait instead for another opportunity in the NHL.
According to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, the Leafs emailed the league to let it be known that Simmonds was available for trade. In other words, the organization hoped to secure him another NHL opportunity if it was out there.
Then Matt Murray suffered an injury ahead of the Leafs’ third game of the season, which opened the door for Simmonds to return to the Leafs — and the NHL. Just not as a lineup regular.
Simmonds suited up four times in his first nine games back with the Leafs, but eventually, his opportunity dried up.
Like last season, when he was scratched frequently down the stretch, Simmonds doesn’t have quite the pace necessary to keep up anymore.
Asked whether he had any interest in the AHL, where he would get to play games more often, Simmonds responded, “No, I’m here. No, I’m here.”
It’s easy to forget now, when he’s barely playing and grabbing only spare minutes when he does suit up, just what a great player Simmonds once was. From the start of the 2011-12 season until the end of the 2017-18 season, a span of seven seasons, Simmonds potted the 15th-most goals in the NHL.
Only Alex Ovechkin scored more on the power play.
Wayne Simmonds chases the Flames’ Nikita Zadorov. (John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)
Players of that ilk aren’t always OK winding down their career this way.
Jason Spezza, notably, decided to retire when the prospect of regular playing time became a question mark after last season.
Unlike Spezza, Simmonds still had another year left on the two-year deal the Leafs signed him to after the 2020-21 season.
Simmonds told me in training camp that he believed he still had a lot left in the tank and hoped to play for “another few years.” He reiterated that belief recently, but said his role, for now, was to provide support any way he could and to stay ready — always — for that next opportunity.
“I know I have lots to give,” Simmonds said. “It’s just, we have a really good team. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here: We have a really good team. And obviously — I don’t want to speak too soon — but we’re trying to reach the pinnacle of our sport.”
The Stanley Cup, in other words. Winning it with the Leafs, the Scarborough native acknowledged, “would be amazing.”
Simmonds has yet to score in his eight games. The Leafs have won only 40 percent of the expected goals when he’s been out there in the tiny sample size of just 61 minutes. It’s reasonable to think he could play only a tad more as a depth forward on a lesser team.
Unlike last season though, when he suited up in Games 1 and 2 against the Lightning, there’s almost no chance Simmonds will play a role in this postseason for the Leafs — other than as a leader off the ice.
That’s where Simmonds is playing his biggest role right now.
“I think he just comes and works every day, and I think he’s just really enjoying every day and being around the group,” Leafs captain John Tavares said. “He’s a big part of the fabric here. I think he feels that. I think the group feels that. I think he just continues to be himself. And we just really enjoy his presence and obviously his professionalism and (the) leadership that he brings.”
“It can’t be easy,” Tavares went on, referring to Simmonds’ upbeat approach amid a lack of playing time. “Obviously he wants to be out there and wants to play. But I think the way he’s bought in — he’s still a tremendous, big part of our team and our group, so I still think he takes a lot of pride in that and knows how he can bring that to the table still in different ways… I know he’s someone that I lean on, just as a guy that’s been around, an older guy, and (he) always has a pulse and a sense of things. Obviously he hasn’t been playing as much so he can get a different perspective as not always being it at times.”
Simmonds remembers how Hal Gill once played that part for the Flyers.
“Just thinking about a guy like that,” Simmonds said, “who really was a glue guy on our team back in Philly, a guy that kept all the guys together and always had a positive mindset. That’s all I’m trying to do here.”
Gill, then 38, played only six games for the Flyers during that 2013-14 regular season and once more in the playoffs.
He retired in 2015.
Simmonds, it seems clear, isn’t prepared to let his mind wander that far ahead — even if all signs point to this being, perhaps, his final NHL season. He’ll become a UFA this summer. For now, the Leafs can keep him around as an extra who will provide energy and competitiveness at practice and guidance off the ice until (if) his roster spot is needed.
“You can’t look behind you, you can’t look ahead, you gotta stay (in the) day to day,” Simmonds said. “I’ve played in this league for a long time, and you’ve always got to be in the moment. You can’t let your mind wander because then you might get an opportunity to play, and if you do, you gotta make sure you’re ready.
“I’m still in the NHL,” Simmonds concluded. “That’s all I could ask for right now at this point.”
(Top photo: Kevin Sousa / NHLI via Getty Images)
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