If the Toronto Maple Leafs want to get back to the playoffs, they need to upgrade their second-line centre position, downgrading John Tavares to the third line.
This may sound like it's a hate-piece against Tavares, but it really isn't. The 35-year-old has two assists in his first three games and is still a great player, but his speed is lacking. Tavares has never been the fastest player in the league, but after a few games you can see that he's missing a step, which is not what you want when you're playing with an 18-year-old.
On a line with Gavin McKenna and William Nylander, Tavares has been out of reach on multiple passes this year, indicating that he's lost a step. It may be knitpicking as maybe the team hasn't found their chemistry yet, but the speed stats back that statement up.
It's only three games, but Tavares' max speed burst this year is at 20.23 mph, compared to 22.66 last year. Obviously he had a full season to accomplish that feat last year, but after a long offseason, you'd hope to see a little more speed early in the season.
Again, this is probably looking way too much into analytics three games into the year, but in the long-term, it does feel like McKenna is someone who will benefit better playing with a faster centre. That could just mean a promotion to the first-line with Auston Matthews, or it could mean a trade.
Speed aside, the Leafs top-six is very good but their top-nine could be one of the best in the NHL if they upgraded their centre position. Nick Paul and Teddy Blueger are fine bottom-six centre's but the team would be way better if they pushed Paul to the wing, then promoted Easton Cowan, so the Leafs top-nine would look something like:
Leafs need to move Tavares to third-line
Easton Cowan - Auston Matthews - Kirill Marchenko
Gavin McKenna - X Centre - William Nylander
Nick Paul - John Tavares - Jack Roslovic
Marchenko has played right wing for his entire NHL career before he came to Toronto, while Cowan is proving to show that he deserves more minutes. The team could push Roslovic down to the third-line, push Cowan up to the top-line and then create this smart and fun grinding third-line that can score.
With $7M in cap-space, it's easy for the Leafs to bring in another player, but it's tough to predict who would be leaving. They just traded their best trade-chip in Matthew Knies and don't have many draft-picks available, either, so it seems hard to pull off.
Maybe the team should just hold off until Connor McDavid becomes a UFA to find their second-line centre, but either way, the team is definitely in need of a replacement for Tavares because it's clear that he's losing a step. They'll be able to hide it for the first half, but when the playoffs start, let's hope that JT is on the third-line.
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