The Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t made any off-season moves yet.
That hasn’t stopped the rumour-mill from going absolutely crazy. The Toronto Maple Leafs are rumored to be on the verge of at least 98 transactions.
At least!
So while I am a huge fan of the rumour-mill, let’s take five minutes and talk about something else.
Let’s talk about my favorite player, Nazem Kadri.
Kadri and the Left Wing
Kadri has been mentioned in numerous trade rumours, mostly stemming from his (and it’s still impossible to believe it happened) second straight first round suspension against the Boston Bruins.
But let’s not let emotions get in our way (he says, while discussing his favorite player). You can be mad at Kadri for his actions – the Leafs are almost certainly playing for the Stanley Cup right now if he keeps his cool – but that doesn’t mean he should be kicked off the team.
Kadri is 28 and has three more years left at on an extremely team friendly $4.5 million dollar cap-hit.
He twice scored over 30 goals, but last year dropped to 16.
That’s not as bad as it sounds, since he lost a minute of 5v5 ice-time when the Leafs signed Tavares and made Kadri their #3 centre, which also made him less of a power-play option.
Finally, Kadri’s numbers were destroyed by having the lowest on-ice shooting percentage on the team, and a very low personal shooting percentage. Like Nylander, the numbers for Kadri last year are way, way lower than they would normally have been. Though most people are not aware, a player doesn’t have any control over his shooting percentage – it’s 100% luck. (Stats from naturalstattrick.com).
Since the Leafs otherwise have little of the kind of energy, defensive ability and grittiness that Kadri brings to the table, I would be hesitant to move him.
Additionally, he is a home-grown star on a team with a history of having precious few of those. He’s also (more or less) a local, and he’s been with the team since it was bad, all the way through the rebuild.
I think therefore, that moving him would be a mistake. But you can’t waste a player like Kadri on the third line – he doesn’t get enough ice time, but even getting him the ice-time he did get cost the Leafs because it led to them not using Tavares and Matthews enough.
Though not definitive proof, it’s worth noting that the Leafs had more or less the same record with one of their three centres on the injured reserve.
Instead of using Kadri on the third line – where he plays with worse players, gets less ice-time and can’t help his team as much as he could – the Toronto Maple Leafs should convert him to a left-winger.
Who in the NHL would have a better top-two lines than:
Johnsson – Matthews – Nylander
Kadri – Tavares – Marner
It’s a killer top-six that is going to dominate. No offense to Zach Hyman, but when the Leafs top line was matched against the Pastrnak-Bergeron-Marchand line, the Leafs were stuck matching two first-liners against three.
Not that Kadri necessarily makes the Leafs line as good as that (the Bruins first line is probably the best line in the NHL), but the Bruins do make a good argument for loading up a super-line and ignoring the classic coach’s tendency to balance things out.
Moving Kadri to the left-wing does two things. One: it eliminates the waste of having a first line caliber player on the third line. Two: it addresses the Toronto Maple Leafs biggest weakness, which is that after Andreas Johnsson they do not have any left wingers who are top-six worthy.
Don’t trade kadri (I mean, if Winnipeg is dumb enough to give you Trouba straight up, I guess you have to, so I should say that “realistically” you should not trade Kadri). Instead, make him a left winger and watch him score 40 goals while teams focus all their energy on Marner and Tavares.