Most of the spotlight and credit for the strong start of this year’s Maple Leafs has rightfully gone to Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, Dion Phaneuf and Jake Gardiner. But there’s one guy who doesn’t get enough credit – veteran defenceman John-Michael Liles.

Take a look at the fifth-leading scorer on Toronto’s roster right now. It isn’t high-priced off-season acquisition Tim Connolly (although if he has another couple nights like he did against Carolina Tuesday, he’ll be there soon enough). It isn’t anyone from the Mikhail-Grabovski-Nikolai-Kulemin-Clarke-MacArthur line that was the Leafs’ best last season. No, No. 5 is Liles, who was traded to Toronto from Colorado in the summer and is playing at the relative bargain rate salary cap hit of $4.2 million.

If you’re counting nickels and dimes as all NHL GMs do in the cap era, Liles (whose 14 assists and 17 points are one point behind Phaneuf among Toronto point-getters) will make $50,000 less than what former Leaf Tomas Kaberle will earn – okay, “allegedly” earn – for this season and each of the next two years.

But it isn’t just offence that Liles is providing. He’s tougher than Kaberle was on his most ornery day in Blue and White, and at age 31, he’s the senior member of the squad and one of only four Leafs with 30 NHL playoff games or more under his belt. The Leafs’ current group of players has played a combined 290 NHL playoff games. Detroit legend Nicklas Lidstrom has 258 career NHL playoff games played himself. That shows (a) that GM Brian Burke likely will have to address Toronto’s lack of experience; and (b) that Liles’ 36 games of post-season play will be important to the group.

Liles is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of this season, but don’t be surprised to see Burke lock him up to a three-or-four-year contract extension. The organization likes him very much – and as we’ve seen with the ridiculous contract Kaberle signed with Carolina before the Hurricanes came to their senses and traded him, the free agent market can warp any above-average blue-liner’s actual value.

To get him signed likely will take a multi-year deal in the $5 million-a-season range, but right now, Liles is playing like he’s worth it. On a young Leafs squad, he’s become a vital vet in short order.