The Toronto Maple Leafs are not only in rebuilding mode, they’re also playing without multiple players due to injury. As a result, the lineup lacks a lot of experience. Just how inexperienced they are is fairly well illustrated by a player on the team they were playing Thursday night.

With the Florida Panthers in town, that meant Jaromir Jagr was lining up across the ice from the Maple Leafs. The future Hall of Famer is the NHL's third-leading scorer, all-time, with 1,856 career points. When you combine the career totals of the 18 Toronto skaters suited up for Thursday night’s game, they equal 1,836 according to Sportsnet.

It’s a testament to Jagr’s excellence and longevity, but a lineup with a career average of just 102 points is a pretty good indicator of the position the Maple Leafs are in right now. Veteran forward Milan Michalek is the leading scorer among all players in Toronto’s lineup with 439 career points.

It should be noted that the Leafs are missing Joffrey Lupul, Leo Komarov, James van Riemsdyk, Tyler Bozak and Brad Boyes Thursday as all are sitting out with injuries. Put all of them together and they make for 1,534, so this game was a little different. Even knowing that, it's still pretty crazy that the Leafs are unable to put a lineup on the ice that has more career points than one man. Eighteen players is kind of a lot.

Part of the reason it's possible is because Toronto’s roster for Thursday included Connor Brown, who was making his NHL debut, and a trio of players that only have nine games each under their belts and all three share nine total points.

One of the three rookies is William Nylander, whose father Michael is a former teammate of Jagr’s.  According to Sportsnet Stats, Michael Nylander contributed assists on 40 of No. 68’s 745 goals, which rank third all-time in NHL history. 

The younger Nylander was actually born just after Jagr had completed the sixth season of his NHL career, which also happened to be the year Jagr posted his most productive season while with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Jagr had 62 goals and 149 points that season and still finished fourth in Hart Trophy voting. Different times in the NHL, eh?

Young Nylander also recounted his experiences with Jagr as a kid hanging around the team when his dad was playing for the New York Rangers:

Things are a little different now, and not just because Nylander never became a full-time goalie.

Jagr is at the stage of his career where there will be a multitude of opponents who are experiencing the same thing their fathers did years prior, but who would have ever thought he’d reach a point where he’d have more points than an entire team’s worth of players?

So, Jaromir Jagr's been around for a while. (Sportsnet)
So, Jaromir Jagr's been around for a while. (Sportsnet)