The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the deepest teams in the NHL.
At the centre ice position, there is not one team that is even close to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Auston Matthews, John Tavares and Nazem Kadri represent a depth at the position that is unmatched by anyone else in the league.
Tavares was one of the third highest scorer in the NHL this year on a points per minute of ice-time basis (5v5 min. 1000 minutes) and Auston Matthews was 11th.
Matthews, since he came into the NHL, has scored more goals per minute than anyone else in the NHL.
Unfortunately, ice-time distribution held back both players from achieving their potential.
Play Your Best Players
Despite evidence that Matthews and Tavares are both top five centres in the NHL, Tavares was the 12th most used 5v5 centre in the NHL this past year.
Auston Matthews was 18th. (All stats from Naturalstattrick.com).
This is completely unacceptable. Fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs watched helplessly as the Leafs tried to come back in the third period of game seven against Boston while coach Mike Babock continued to roll four lines.
It was an abject failure by the coach, but seems to be representative of his overall philosophy, based on the ice-time numbers of the entire season.
Now the Leafs have Kadri as a third centre, and that does provide match-up nightmares for other coaches, but it’s worth asking if having such a high profile third-line centre is worthwhile if it cuts into the ice time of the team’s two elite players.
Though my initial reaction was that the Leafs should keep Kadri, perhaps a downgrade at the 3C position would be beneficial in that it would get more ice time to Matthews and Tavares.
Nic Petan might make a decent #3 centre, and the Leafs wouldn’t have to play him nearly as much as they play Kadri. If you measure the player the Leafs would get for Kadri, and the four extra minutes they could then give to Tavares and Matthews (combined) it might make the most sense to try and deal him.
In addition to getting more ice time to the two big centres at even-strength, the Leafs should have both of them killing penalties.
Whenever the Toronto Maple Leafs take two penalties in succession, it has the effect of keeping Tavares and Matthews nailed to the bench for nearly half a period.
That just doesn’t do.
If the Toronto Maple Leafs truly want to take the next step, they’ve got to unleash the beasts. That means getting at least four more minutes at 5v5 or their top two centres, adding in some PK time, and keeping them on the ice for the entirety of powerplays.
In total ice time per game, among centres, Tavares is 29th and Matthews 41st. That alone is justification for firing Babcock.
Realistically, you could find Tavares another three minutes per game, and Matthews another four. Trade Kadri and improve your defense. Play the third and fourth lines sparingly and win with the players who make the most difference.
The Toronto Maple Leafs and their fans are worried about how they can improve with the team up against the salary cap so closely. The way they can do that is by actually using the good players they have in the way in which every other team in hockey uses their best players.