The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed significantly upgraded their centre depth in free agency this year.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have given near league-minimum one year deals to both Jason Spezza and Nick Shore.
Both are decent to great options at the price, but the acquisitions have fueled speculation that the team could trade Nazem Kadri.
That would be a mistake.
Toronto Maple Leafs, Spezza, Kadri and Shore.
Nazem Kadri is a homegrown star. He has been with the team since they were garbage and he should be allowed to see this thing through to the inevitable Stanley Cup championship.
His contract – $4.5 million for a first line caliber player – is an absolute steal.
Getting Shore and Spezza does not make him expendable. It makes it smart to move him to left wing.
In the NHL, if you have two of the best centres in the entire world (Auston Matthews and John Tavares) you don’t have enough minutes left over for a third #1 centre.
Therefore, using some combination of Shore, Spezza and Guathier to fill out the bottom six is the optimal use of ice-time. Nazem Kadri should move up to left wing and play in the top six – preferably with Tavares and Marner, to create one of the best lines in the NHL (if not the best one).
The Toronto Maple Leafs are the deepest team in the NHL at centre (Matthews, Tavares, Kadri, Shore, Spezza, Guathier, Nylander, Marner) by about a mile.
But that doesn’t mean they should move Kadri.
In fact, they should go so far as to publicly announce that he’ll be back.
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Chart from evolving-hockey.com and used with permission.
If you look at the above chart, which shows the last three years at 5v5, you can see that Spezza has declined significantly from his former super-star level, and that Nick Shore never should have been in the KHL.
Both are completely fine for what the Toronto Maple Leafs need them for – which is bottom six minutes, depth, and the occasional special teams assignment.
For league minimum money, you absolutely can’t go wrong. Neither of these guys will replace Kadri, but in my opinion, you’re better of with a so-so 3rd line centre than sapping minutes from your stars to try and get Kadri enough minutes.
Better to move Kadri up and give the Toronto Maple Leafs something approximating the Bruins Pastrnak -Bergeron-Marchand line.
Kadri-Tavares-Marner is just as good, if not better.
The Toronto Maple Leafs should not trade Kadri.